Tripod
by patricia51
Summary: Set during RE:Extinction. On the trip to Las Vegas Alice begins to realize that everything she wants is already in the cab of the truck with her. But will she be able to keep it? Alice/Carlos romance with Kmart as family. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

Tripod by patricia51

(Takes place during RE:Extinction. On the trip to Las Vegas Alice begins to realize that everything she wants is already in the cab of the truck with her. But will she be able to keep it? Alice/Carlos romance leading to a family that includes Kmart. Alice's last name comes from the novelization of one of the movies. As for the meaning of the title, well, I'll explain it when the time is right.)

Alice Abernathy was doing something that under normal circumstances she would have considered a complete waste of time. True, the former head of security for the Umbrella Corporation's secret Raccoon City bio-research facility and now sworn foe of the mega-corporation really could not recall any time that could be considered "normal". But even by the standards of the life she had been living for the past few years, which was all the years she could remember, she was doing something out of character.

She wasn't making plans to stay clear of Umbrella's search for her or plotting ways to strike back at them. She wasn't searching for food or gas or water or ammo. She wasn't battling the hordes of the undead or the scavengers who preyed on other humans. In fact she wasn't even thinking about any of that.

Sitting with a notebook in her lap open to pictures and writings concerning Alaska, Alice was day-dreaming. Her mind had left the constant fight against Umbrella and the never-ending struggle to stay alive for one more day and was resting itself in the far North where the infection reportedly had never spread.

Her body swayed gently with the motion of the truck as the small convoy raced down the sandy road towards Las Vegas and hopefully resupply. For once she just let herself go, relax, and take in the moment. And it felt really good.

Maybe, just maybe there was more to life than her battle with Umbrella. She hadn't considered that in so long. Her gaze drifted from the open note-book to the other side of the cab and the two people there. She smiled.

Carlos Olivera was driving; his big hands steady on the wheel, his gaze straight ahead. Carlos was someone she had been down the road to Hell with and back out again. Like her he was a former Umbrella employee. In his case he had been a soldier on one of their security teams dispatched to help the police control the outbreak of the T-Virus in Raccoon City and then abandoned when the situation spiraled out of control.

They had met and together with Jill Valentine and LJ they had fought their way to the landing field and escaped. Then she had been retaken by Umbrella after the helicopter had crashed. But her friends had not left her; they had come after her. It had broken her heart to slip away from them but there had been no choice. Umbrella, particularly Dr. Isaacs, was after her and being with them endangered her friends.

Even with all that though the call had been too strong. And she had responded just in time as the out of control flame weapon had swung towards Carlos. It was typical of him, trying to shield a young girl with his own body from the flames.

Sometimes she had to remind herself that all men were not Spence or Dr. Isaacs or Major Cain. There were men like Matt and Carlos, men who were brave and full of compassion and heart at the same time. And even now she was seeing yet another side of Carlos, a side she hadn't glimpsed before.

Her eyes shifted from the man driving to the girl beside him. A girl she had just met and yet who already had moved something deep inside her. Like Carlos did but in a completely different way. Carlos was someone she could see herself standing back to back with in a fight against anything. He was the partner she had once thought Spence was. But the girl stirred something quite different.

Alice's eyes dropped to the bracelet around her wrist. She had woken in the back of one of the convoy's vehicles after collapsing from the mental strain of directing the firestorm . Lifting her hand to block the light filtering in from outside she had seen the bracelet on her arm. Even though she was groggy she had realized there was another person in the vehicle with her. She had also known that person was no threat to her. Then she had seen the long blonde hair and the hesitant smile as the young woman had quietly said hi.

Alice smiled again as she recalled the conversation.

"This belong to you?"

"I gave it to you last night. For luck."

"Thank you." She had paused. "What's your name?"

"Kmart."

The explanation and the answer she had got when she had asked about another name had touched Alice deeply. The young woman's final words of that first conversation still resonated in Alice's mind.

"Seemed like time for a change."

Alice smiled again as she looked at the blonde head pillowed on Carlos' shoulder. She wasn't the only one who trusted the big ex-Umbrella soldier completely. So did Kmart. And that said a lot.

Carlos glanced over at Alice. His eyes went back to the road for a moment and then returned to meet Alice's gaze. He knew why she was smiling at him and she could tell that he wasn't the least embarrassed about being found out for the softie he could be when he could afford it. He smiled back at her and then concentrated on driving.

No words had been exchanged. None needed to be. Alice relaxed and let herself go to the sway of the vehicle again. Somehow it just seemed right; the three of them together. A man she had shared so much with and a teen she had just met.

Maybe Kmart was right. Maybe it was time for a change.

(To Be Continued)


	2. Chapter 2

Tripod, Chapter 2 by patricia51

(The first chapter followed the movie except of course Alice's personal thoughts and feelings. Beginning with this chapter the story deviates to what I would have liked to have happened.)

Las Vegas was downright spooky, even for someone who had seen as much as Alice had. There was no sign of anyone living or dead. Or undead. No bodies, no living people, no zombies and no sign that any one had been to the sand-choked city in years. It should have been reassuring. It wasn't.

Regardless of the hair standing up on the back of her neck Alice knew the convoy needed, well, pretty much everything. Food was gone and the vehicles were on their last drops of gas. The smaller towns had been picked clean so a city was their only choice. They stopped where they spotted the first sign pointing towards a fuel point. There was sand in the way but it could be dealt with. The real obstacle was the large shipping container blocking the entrance.

After scanning the area carefully the survivors clambered from their vehicles. Claire briskly gave directions.

"Chase I need a lookout. Up there." The man indicated slung his assault rifle and started climbing the replica Eiffel Tower. Mikey started pulling the hook and cable from the winch on the front of his vehicle towards the container as Alice and Carlos approached. Alice checked over her shoulder to see where Kmart was. She smiled as she saw Carlos was checking on the teen girl too.

Her gaze swept over the group and her smile faded. What was wrong with LJ? He looked awful. She started towards him but then stopped as something tugged at her mind. She spun back around and approached the container.

"Something's wrong."

She didn't even realize she had said that out loud until Claire replied.

"What is it?"

"I don't know." She put the side of her head to the container door. But rather than listening with her ears she closed her eyes and felt with her mind. Near panic engulfed her as she sensed the imminent danger to her, to all of them. She sprang back, leveling her shotgun.

Claire and the others were seasoned veterans of the never-ending struggle to survive in this world gone amuck. Weapons were leveled at the container even before Alice could yell "Get back". The other adults rushed forward even as the children ran for the safety of the vehicles. Then the door opened. Not sideways like it should have but dropped with an evil thud like a Guillotine blade falling. There was a pause and then Hell erupted.

Even with Alice's warning the horde of zombies pouring from the container froze everyone for just a second. They were FAST and strong and the fresh clothing they wore resembled uniforms. It was a trap and they had fallen into it.

Things might have gone very, VERY bad but for the intervention of one person. As the creatures flooded through the opening a figure flung itself under their feet. The acceleration the undead had picked up from their rush out of the back of the container told against them now as they stumbled over LJ. Instead of a head-long rush that might have snowed the survivors under the creatures fell over and into each other, creating a kicking, squirming pile.

Alice dropped her shotgun and swept her blades from their sheaths. She leaped to the pile, separating heads from trunks over and over again. Methodically Claire, Mikey, Carlos and the others gunned down those who staggered free. There were no wasted shots.

Not all of the zombies had been caught up in the pile-up. Chase picked off at least half of the ones that got out of the melee but others scattered in pursuit of the fleeing younger survivors. Alice cut through the zombies like a harvester in a wheat field but was not so intent that she didn't hear Kmart scream. She took a frantic look over her shoulder to see the teen slip and fall as she ran towards what Alice already thought of as "their" truck. One of the new type zombies was nearly upon her. And Alice couldn't do anything from where she was.

"Carlos," she cried out in near terror. He had heard also the cry and was already spinning around. He tightened his finger on the trigger of his sub-machine gun and fired without even seeming to aim. The first round hit the creature in the lower back and Carlos walked the stream of bullets up until its head exploded. Kmart regained her feet and scrambled into the truck, slamming the reinforced door behind her. Carlos had already turned back to his original targets by the time the door clanged shut.

Some creatures had got past the initial confusion and hail of gunfire. A choked cry came from a man with a jammed pistol running up an inclined ramp, with several zombies right behind. Alice put one foot on the pile of dead for real bodies and jumped to the top of the container. She ran along it, springing up to the level the man and his pursuers had reached. Just as she started to engage them she felt her body quiver and she lost all ability to move.

"Not again," she screamed silently. Somehow Umbrella had found her. She had kept careful track of the satellites but somehow something had changed. She could FEEL the signal being beamed down to her, beamed into the subconscious programming that Isaacs had inserted into her brain. She watched helplessly while the other survivor was killed and the zombies turned their attention to her.

Suddenly Alice realized that the link worked both ways. She concentrated on it, sent her mind back up the data stream to the satellite. There was something that almost was a click in her mind and she was herself again. She neither knew nor cared that she had burned out a module in the far away object.

With several quick moves she avenged the person she couldn't save. The remaining zombies were meat on the floor and she sprang to the stone railing of the upper floor and looked around. Her eyes caught a shape and color that were out of place. Focusing she realized it was the tip of an Umbrella Corp helicopter on the top of a nearby building. This had indeed been a trap. A trap for her but one that would have slaughtered everyone else, including those two very special people. Giving a nearly feral growl Alice leaped down and stormed across the street.

She wrenched open a door and bounded up the stairway leading to the roof, taking the steps two and three at a time. As she made the last turn she felt something contacting her mind again, although this time she was immediately conscious of the touch. She kicked open the door and stormed on to the roof.

For a moment her body slowed. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She knew Umbrella was trying to take control of her again. She brought up the images of Carlos and Kmart and made them a shield for her mind. The attempt to control her clawed at her defense in vain. Then it disappeared as she entered the hastily erected tent and her pistols sprang into her hands.

Men in Umbrella uniforms fell as they tried to bring their weapons to bear. She almost ignored one man at a computer terminal but then he clawed a heavy automatic from a concealed holster and paid the price for it. An opening in the side of the tent fluttered and she spun to see the back of Dr Isaacs disappear. She leaped two bodies and followed.

Isaacs had almost reached the helicopter when a zombie sprang on him. The helo pilot twisted in his seat, a pistol rising in his hand. Then he screamed and vanished as a second zombie pulled him from his machine. Alice was closer to Isaacs and lifted a pistol before remembering the last exchange she had with Major Cain in Raccoon City.

"Killing me won't change things."

"No, but it's a start."

The decision was taken out of her hands as Isaacs slumped lifelessly to the roof while the pilot managed to wiggle free and rolled under the helo. Alice dropped both zombies with a head shot for each.

"Don't move," she instructed the Umbrella pilot who raised his empty hands and nodded. She kicked his pistol to the other side of the roof and lowered her guns. She looked over her shoulder as already familiar footsteps sounded on the gravel.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Alice holstered her pistols. She looked at Kmart. "Next time you stay in the truck though."

"Absolutely," came Carlos' voice as he emerged from the doorway. "I'm getting too old to chase you up stairways after a fight like that."

Kmart sighed and rolled her eyes in perfect teen fashion. "Yes Mother, yes Father. I'll behave." Underneath the teasing tone Alice caught the deep longing in the teen's voice. She hugged the young woman.

"I doubt that but thanks for pretending you're paying attention."

Carlos wrapped them both up in his arms. "I'm just glad you're both safe." He looked at the black machine. "Okay, so now we have ourselves a helicopter. What do we do with it?"

"I've got an idea."

(To Be Continued) 


	3. Chapter 3

Tripod, Chapter 3 by patricia51

"I've got an idea."

"Which is?" Carlos prompted Alice.

"It would be a lot easier and safer to fly to Alaska rather than drive there."

"I can fly it," Claire had reached the roof top along with a couple of other convoy members. Mikey was studying the computer system, completely ignoring the body of its former operator. The others were busy picking up the weapons and ammo the deceased guards would no longer need. There were murmurs of satisfaction as the searchers discovered that the Umbrella employees had brought food with them, food that was fresher than any they had been eating in a long time.

"However..."

Alice sighed. "There's always a 'however' isn't there?" But she already knew what the difficulty was even as Claire pointed it out.

"We can't all fly to Alaska in that. There just isn't enough room for everyone."

The group stood silent, acknowledging the problem. Their musings were broken from a surprising source.

"What about two helicopters?" asked a muffled but completely unfamiliar voice.

Everyone turned to look at the forgotten helicopter pilot.

"What are you saying?"

Still kneeling, the pilot reached up and pulled off his issue Umbrella Corp helmet. Under it was the face of a man in his mid to late twenties. Dark hair and eyes colored in a face pale from being away from the sun for too long. He looked up at them through features that were as lined with care and worry as were any of theirs.

"There's another helicopter at the base. It's a larger one that can carry cargo." He jerked his head towards the scene of the recent firefight. "It brought that container here. It's also armed as a gunship. If you," he looked at Claire," can fly this one I can fly that one."

The senior member of the convoy exchanged glances. It was Claire who turned back to the pilot.

"Why should we trust you?"

"May I get up? I'm unarmed and this stuff is pretty hard on my knees."

Alice studied the man and nodded to Claire who gave permission. The man rose and nodded his thanks.

"I really can't make you trust me. Anything I say could be a lie I guess. But here goes anyway." He took a deep breath. "I want to get away from Umbrella. I'm sure I'm not the only one but surveillance is so pervasive at the base that nobody dares talk to anyone else about it."

"The base is running down. Here and at the other Umbrella facilities. Food is running lower and lower. Causalities continue to climb. Recently it was discovered the zombies may remain animate for decades. Morale is shot. No one except the members of the Board seem to see any future at all."

"Then why haven't you already taken off?" asked Carlos.

"And go where? With whom? At least right now there still is some food. There's heat and cooling and beds with mattresses. Everyone, including me, just thinks about today. But now there's other people and a shot at getting somewhere where the infection might not exist. Yes, I've heard rumors about some places circulate through the facility. Several of them are in North America and the closest is Alaska."

Alice filed away the revelation that there might be more than one place of refuge for their convoy but the other locations were not of major importance just now. Her attention returned to the pilot as he went on.

"Besides," he shrugged. "Umbrella prefers to blame failures on the lowest possible level. If I show up even with the helicopter, the computer equipment AND all the arms, ammunition and food that you have already picked up I would still end up being the fall guy. They won't blame Dr. Isaacs, they have to have someone living to display as the person who caused this mission to fail. After all, it's never the fault of the planners; it's always the fault of someone on the execution end."

Alice and Carlos exchanged looks. Both had worked for Umbrella and were well aware of that corporation's habit both of passing the buck and of jettisoning personnel when it became economically unfavorable to support them.

"So," Claire looked around. "How are we going to do this? And by the way, what's your name?"

"Sam. Sam Treadwell. Originally from Anaheim."

"Sam, just so you know, if you lead us into a trap I am going to blow your head off if I don't manage to do anything else."

"Fair enough," the pilot agreed.

It took only a few minutes to organize the raid on the Umbrella facility. Claire, Carlos and Alice donned uniforms striped from the late ambush party, adjusting them as well as they could to hide the bloodstains and bullet holes. Weapons were strapped on and helmets placed in the helo.

The remainder of the party moved their vehicles under cover and then barricaded themselves in the building. An old storage building of some sort Umbrella had probably picked it for the same reason the survivors liked it. It had no windows and the walls were thick concrete. The heavy metal doors opened out so they could be secured easily.

Mikey would stay and keep in touch with the airborne party and monitor what he could from the Umbrella computer terminal. He was already working at peeking inside the targeted facility. From what he could tell no alarm had been raised before Alice had wiped out the ambushers. He was also able to provide a layout of the facility with particular emphasis on the helicopter hanger and how it operated. Several corrections were made by Sam who explained that the original parts had worn out over the years and been replaced by jury-rigged systems. Everything was a go.

One last chore that had to be accomplished was to bury the convoy members killed in the fight. Fortunately, due to LJ's sacrifice, there were only two. Alice and the others went to his mangled body, nearly buried in a mound of zombie corpses.

"Why did he do that?" asked one of the other survivors.

Alice turned the broken body over. She remembered when she had first met LJ in the battle-zone of Raccoon City. He had proven to be a good man, with a sense of humor that never failed them even in the worst situations. And like Carlos and Jill he had stuck with her. She looked closer.

"There," she pointed. "The wound on his chest. That didn't happen today. Did you have an encounter a couple of days ago?"

"Yes," sighed Claire. "The day before you joined us. He must have got bitten then." She stared at the ugly festering wound. "He must have felt the change coming over him and acted before he lost control and attacked one of us."

"He was always a good man. And a good friend."

The only difficulty in their plans for the raid was Kmart. She was determined to go. She didn't pout or pitch a fit. She simply folded her arms and refused to move away from the helicopter.

"Honey," Carlos tried to reason with her. "There no place for you on this. It's a raid and it's Claire and Alice and I because we're the best shooters. Hopefully we'll be in and out in a hurry. There just won't be anything for you to do."

Kmart's only response was to tighten her look of determination.

Alice sighed. Actions spoke louder than words and Carlos had proved more than once how he felt about the teenager. But he didn't have the words. She wasn't sure she did either. She felt the same way as the big ex-Umbrella soldier, about Kmart and the way they felt about each other. But now wasn't the time to go into that.

It was Claire who managed to break the deadlock. She draped her arm over Kmart's shoulders. "Sweetie, what Carlos is trying to tell you and what Alice can't quite find the words for is that they would worry about you too much. Normally worrying about someone is not a bad thing, but in this case both of them would be watching you when they should have their minds on their jobs."

"But I'm scared. I'm scared I'm going to lose them."

"I understand." Claire touched Kmart's face with her fingertips and smiled. "But they'll come back. I'll make sure of that. You haven't found a new family just to lose it."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"We do too." Alice said softly. Carlos nodded. Both adults hugged the teenager again and climbed onto the helo with Sam and Claire. The rotor began to spin and the machine lifted slowly. Those left on the roof covered their faces as the rotor wash kicked up a near blinding cloud of dust. But as soon as the helo pulled away Kmart ran to the edge of the roof and stood with her eyes fixed on the disappearing dot until it was out of sight.

"Remember," the teen whispered as she stared into the now empty sky. "You promised."

(To Be Continued)

(two points for anyone who can ID from which Science fiction movie also involving a sand choked Las Vegas I borrowed Sam from.)


	4. Chapter 4

Tripod, Chapter 4 by patricia5

(No clones, no Tyrant. A comment however on Kmart's connection with Alice. I've seen some other fics that pair them romantically. I have no objections to that, although I like them better when they let some time pass so Kmart's an adult. For this fic though, if you haven't guessed it already, I'm going with Spencer Locke's (and if you don't know who she is I ain't telling you) assessment that she sees their relationship as a Mother/Daughter one. Also two points to Kaioshin who correctly ID'd "Sam Treadwell from Anaheim" as being from the movie "Cherry 2000". Sam was played by David Andrews who was last seen as General Creswell on the last season of JAG. The movie also starred Melanie Griffith not only pre-Antonio Banderas but even pre-Don Johnson I think.)

The flight to the Umbrella base seemed to take forever and yet no time at all. Claire, riding in the right seat, seemed absorbed in thoughts of her own although occasionally she looked back at Carlos and Alice in the back compartment. It was hard to see through the helmet visor but it seemd to Alice's extraordinary vision that the other woman was smiling.

Nothing much was said. Everyone was preparing themselves for the fight ahead. They had worked it out. When Sam landed the helo it would sink on a concealed elevator into the base. Alice and Carlos would move immediately to the passageway that led to the main section of the buried facility and secure the door, handling any opposition on the way.

Sam would refuel this helo while Claire took control of the second one and pre-flighted it. Sam told that usually there were no more than two or three men present and it was unlikely any would be armed. The site depended on the fence to keep away the continually growing horde of zombies drawn to the felt presence of living humans.

"However," he had added, "with Dr. Isaacs supposedly returning on this flight we could be met by Captain Slater, the CO of the Umbrella troops assigned as security, and half the guard force." He went on to explain that Slater and Isaacs were often at cross-purposes.

A few minutes out from where the facility was Sam glanced at Claire and then back at Alice and Carlos. He tapped the side of his helmet. Realizing what he wanted they all switched on the intercom system in their own helmets.

"Something is wrong." The three survivors stiffened at the words. "No one is answering my radio calls. Not even the AI that is supposed to monitor everything and take over if there is a problem."

"Can we get in?" questioned Claire.

"If the inside grounds are still clear. There's an emergency switch inside a locked panel that will operate the elevator and close the doors after us. If it's still working."

"We won't know till we try."

"And in just a minute."

The helo swept over the base. Sam took a few extra moments to circle before landing to make sure nothing was inside the wire that shouldn't be there. Alice took in the ever increasing gathering of the undead around the fence.

"I can't believe that they haven't overwelmed the fence just from the press of numbers."

"It's bothered us," admitted Sam as the helo settled to the landing pad. "Captain Slater worried about it all the time but Dr. Isaacs always dismissed it."

"Had his mind on other things I suppose."

The helo gently settled into its place. Sam cut the engine and leaped out, ducking under the rotor blades and ran to a box on a low pole. He fished out a key and inserted it, opening the cover. Reaching in he pushed something. There was a momentary hesitation and then the platform began to lower.

As soon as they started down Carlos, Alice and Claire jumped out. They held their weapons down but were ready to engage any threat in an instant. When the movement stopped and the overhead doors had closed the foursome looked around. Nothing moved, nothing caught their eyes.

Sam pointed towards the door that led to the main complex. Carlos sprinted to one side with Alice on the other. The door stood wide open. Carlos checked the hallway while Alice covered them both.

"Oh SHIT."

At Claire's word Alice sought the other woman's location while Carlos continued to guard them. She followed Claire's gaze to a set of controls. A hand was wrapped around a control stick. The hand was attached to an arm. The arm, clad in an Umbrella uniform sleeve, was attached to nothing.

Weapons ready, the trio followed the blood trail with Sam sticking close behind. Around a tumble of fallen crates they found the rest of the man. His body was pinned under the zombie that had drug him here. A pistol was in his remaining hand, the muzzle jammed into the creature's mouth. The creature was so torn up by gunfire it was impossible to tell much about it.

Sam looked over the tableau, sadness in his face. "That was Mike, the other pilot. He must have been trying to open the upper doors when the zombie caught up to him." He reached down and gently pulled the pistol free, checked it and put it in his own holster. No one objected. "At least he took it with him."

A quick search of the remainder of the hanger complex discovered no one else was there. Some but not all of the stacked supplies showed evidence of being thrown about. The foursome held a quick debate. They could refuel the helo they had brought and Sam verified the larger gun/cargo ship was flight ready. But he also pointed out that there was another cargo container available that could be loaded with supplies, including extra fuel.

"Whatever happened seems to be over. It obviously was not the zombies from outside the perimeter because damn it they're still there."

"Are there more of the, whatever the hell they are, the new really active zombies beyond the ones that Isaacs brought to ambush us?" demanded Claire.

"Their code name is 'Crimson Heads'," said Sam. "There aren't anymore that I know of. Which of course means absolutely nothing. Umbrella loves to keep secrets. But I would have to guess the answer is 'Yes'." He nodded towards the place where his friend and his friend's killer were. "That one didn't have the same semi-uniform the others did but it had to come from somewhere."

Claire hesitated. Alice could see the indecision on the woman's face and understood it. On one hand right here was what they had come for. On the other was the promise of supplies for their journey and even after that they had never allowed themselves to even dream about.

"Let's try it."

"Can we lock this door behind us?" Carlos asked. "I can just see coming back here and finding the helos wrecked or some other just lovely happening."

"I can also see us hauling ass down this corridor, pursued by every third zombie in the world and finding the locking mechanism stuck," noted Alice.

"Okay," Claire scolded them all. "We can stand here and argue about possibilities until enough of the cretures come to break down the fence and join the debate. Let's close the door and let's get moving."

Alice took point with Claire behind her. Being the least adept at combat Sam was third with Carlos last as drag man. They moved down the hallway. The lights of the facility occasionally dimmed and then brightened back up.

"Is that usual?" asked Claire after one particularly intense dimming.

"No," was Sam's simple answer.

"Crap."

Once they entered the complex proper the evidence of a full scale battle became obvious. They passed through wrecked labs and offices that had been completely destroyed. And they began to find bodies here and there. Each one, be it Umbrella minion or zombie, was carefully checked to make sure it was dead and going to stay that way. Alice tended to use one of her knives on every Crimson head she found, as the undead creatures obviously were Isaacs' creation.

"How did he create these?" Alice wondered.

"No idea," admitted Sam. "Captain Slater said something about serum Dr. Isaacs had brought from another lab when things began to fall apart. I do know we had to go out and capture individual zombies for the doctor to experiment with. That was a bone of contention because we lost a half-dozen men doing that."

The quartet continued to explore. Sam showed them the armory and the food storage areas and they made notes of their locations. All the way at the bottom of the complex they came to the computer/operations room. An attempt had been made to barricade the door but it had been forced.

"What a mess," observed Carlos as they squeezed through the sprung opening and looked around.

Alice and Claire had to agree. Bullet holes pockmarked panels, equipment and computer consoles as though they had been sprayed like water from a hose.

"Looks like a last stand," observed Claire.

"Probably," agreed Alice.

Sam checked the bodies. "This," he indicated one draped over what appeared to have been the communications center, "was Captain Slater. He was a pretty good guy for a corporate soldier who followed blindly any order of Chairman Wexler." The pilot looked around the room. "Guess he was trying to call for help. There aren't any soldiers left beside him. Everyone else here are clerks and lab workers."

"Well they sure shot the place up. Looks like they got the zombies but most of this damage seems to be from pure blind panic shooting."

"Probably."

"Does it look like he got through to Umbrella corporate HQ?" inquired Alice. "I don't care if they know this facility was overrun but I do care about how much Isaacs or Slater may have passed on to them."

A light started blinking on the console. All four looked suspiciously at it. It turned a steady red and then started blinking again.

"Something familiar there," said Carlos thoughtfully. Then he grinned and slapped the button beside the light."

"What are you doing?" protested Claire.

"It's Mikey."

"How do you know?" asked Alice curiously.

"The light was blinking his name in Morse Code." Carlos leaned over the console and activated both a microphone and a speaker. "Mikey are you there?"

"Where else would I be?" laughed the familiar voice. "Seriously guys, the fight there really destroyed a lot of of the system so I can't check everything. I can't even tell if the AI running the place is off-line, destroyed or simply cut-off."

"As long as she's not here," muttered Alice, recalling the Red Queen AI back in Raccoon City."

"But as far as I tell the communications center has not been activated in hours and the last person to log on was Dr. Isaacs. So Umbrella doesn't know of the situation there. I have learned a lot of other stuff though and some of it is very good for us. I'll brief you on it when you get back but using what security monitors I can access the most important thing right now is that you all are alone there. No humans or zombies."

"That's great," smiled Claire. "Let's see what we can load up on the helicopters and get out of here with a destination and supplies."

(To Be Continued)


	5. Chapter 5

Tripod, Chapter 5 by patricia51

Following Claire's words the foursome started out of the control room. As they hurried down the hallway Alice noticed that Carlos was slowing down. A look of deep thought had spread over his face.

"What?" She stopped and jogged his arm.

"What is it?" called Claire. Her expression was pure impatience.

"I was just thinking. Since the facility is clear, what's the rush? Instead of grabbing armloads of stuff and heading out why don't we bring everyone here? We could rest up for a few days and sort through everything here to make sure we have the best selection."

"If we did that," added Sam, "We could actually ferry stuff out of here and set up a fuel stop or two on the road to Alaska. The helicopters won't take us all the way there in one jump after all."

Claire hesitated. "That's all well and good but what if that fence finally gives way and we're stuck here?"

"It's held so far," pointed out Sam.

"Yes, well 'so far' is great but that doesn't help if the fence goes down just as we close the helipad doors with us here."

"How about this?" proposed Alice. "We bring the vehicles here. Not the tanker but the others would probably fit under the big chopper." She turned to Sam. "I would suppose there's an alarm that would sound if the fence goes down."

Sam nodded. "We should make sure it's still working though."

"If we parked the vehicles in the bay along with the small helicopter then we could bust out even if the big helo was away. It wouldn't be perfectly safe, of course."

"But then what is?" Claire finished. She sighed. "I must admit the idea of a hot shower and a hot actual cooked meal is very tempting." She paused in thought. The others all waited for her decision, even Alice. It was Claire Redfield's responsibility after all.

"Let's check the alarm system," she finally said.

The group returned to the control room and reestablished the connection with Mikey. Between his computer savvy and Carlos pushing buttons and switches at his direction they were able to confirm the fence alarm was completely operational.

"In fact," noted Carlos. "This will let us know when the wire starts to give way. That should give us enough time to make it to the hanger even if we're mostly asleep."

Alice hugged the big former Umbrella soldier. "I knew I kept you around for some reason."

"I always thought it was my incredibly attractive profile," he replied, gently teasing her about her studying him in the cab of the truck.

Claire smiled. She had been worried a bit when Alice had joined the convoy, unsure of what depths might lurk in the self-confessed infected woman. Even with all else that had happened she had been awed at Alice's mind abilities. But she trusted Carlos implicitly and knew that his history with Alice went back years now and he had complete faith in Alice. And more than just faith. The two of them might not be ready to publicly acknowledge it yet but the bond that continued to grow between them was a good deal deeper than comradeship.

"Okay," she said, bringing everyone's attention back to her. "Let's get back to Vegas and pick everyone up." She held up her hand. "After we clean up the bodies and make sure one more time everyone who is dead is going to stay dead."

The others nodded and went to work. A couple of carts were found and the bodies loaded onto them after examination and when needed after a final shot to the head. Then they brought the carts to the personnel lift which rose up in the middle of the old fake frame house. They rode up and dumped the bodies in a convenient gully well within the fence.

Alice had ended up paired with Sam, whom the three survivors trusted more and more as the hours went by. He had a rougher time than the others did since some of the bodies belonged to friends, or at least acquaintances. Alice worked fiercely, impatient to finish the job.

"In a hurry?"

It took Alice a moment to realize that Sam was talking to her. Which should have been obvious she admitted to herself. There wasn't anyone else in sight.

"I don't like being here. I need to get back to Vegas."

Sam looked at Alice. "Well sure," he smiled. "I'm sure you're anxious to get back to your daughter. I can tell your husband is too."

Alice opened her mouth and then shut it again. Sam peered at her.

"Did I say something wrong?"

Alice had never felt so speechless in her whole life, what she could remember of it anyway. She opened her mouth but for once nothing came out.

"I'm sorry," Sam apologized. "Did I misunderstand things? On top of the building it looked to me as though you and Carlos were, well, the young woman called you 'Mother' and him "Father' and the way you all acted towards each other I just assumed that you three were, well, I mean, I thought you're a family." Sam realized just how much he was floundering and shut up.

Alice continued to stand silently while her mind went over what Sam had just said. Was the bond she had felt forming between herself and Carlos and Kmart that obvious to everyone else? And were the other two members of this incipient family aware of it too. She nodded without thinking. In fact she had already realized how Carlos felt about Kmart. Whether he knew yet that it was his fatherly instincts coming to the front she didn't know, but they were. How he felt about her was another question. There was a bond, a deep one but was it romantic on both their parts? A stray thought made her grin. Claire had said something and maybe tonight she would use that idea the convoy leader had mentioned, although not in the same way the other woman had meant. Not exactly anyway.

By now Sam was shifting from one foot to the other, sure that he had committed a faux pas of the highest order. Alice smiled at him.

"Could be."

After the cleanup was finished Sam and Claire took the helicopters and flew back to Las Vegas. Carlos and Alice began to inventory the various storage areas, making lists of what they thought would be items they could take with them on the Alaska trip. They also checked the living quarters for places to stay for everyone.

"A lot of good stuff here," Carlos commented.

"Yeah, Umbrella knows how to look after itself," replied Alice. "It's a shame for the rest of the world, or what's left of it, that they weren't satisfied with being the biggest and most powerful corporation. Even with the debacle of the Hive they just had to go back and open it up and end up releasing the T-Virus on the world. They think they control everything, including nature."

Carlos hugged her. "Well, hopefully soon we will be in Alaska, living free while the Umbrella bigwigs still are cowering in their holes, bitching about never seeing the surface and running out of food."

"We can hope," Alice leaned against him.

"But we will have to be careful," Carlos noted. "If things get worse for them, and I'm willing to bet that they will, in the end Umbrella will turn not only on itself but on any one else it finds. I can see them trying to take over communities like we hope to found or join not just to seize any resources we have but simply because they want to have someone to exercise power over."

Further thoughts were put aside as they hear the thump of the landing bay doors being opened and realized that the helicopters had returned. They raced down the hallway, shielding their eyes against the sun and the wind blown sand. The larger helicopter lowered Claire's car to the ground, then hovered while Mikey and Chase leaped from it and unhooked the chains. It then settled back down, picking them up while a number of other survivors leaped off, and took off again to head back once more to Vegas.

But the important thing to Carlos and Alice was Claire's helo. Even before the rotors stopped turning a certain blonde teen hurtled from the passenger compartment, running full tilt until she was swept up by both of the waiting people.

"My goodness girl," marveled Carlos, a twinkle in his eye, "have you grown?"

Kmart laughed. "Could be," she said, not having any idea Alice had used those same words only hours before.

The trio went to work, helping the others inside and getting everyone down to the mess hall the foursome had earlier decided the group would use. Kmart plunged eagerly into the kitchen, dragging Alice and marveling at the abundance of food as well as inquiring where "their" quarters were.

"Our quarters?" smiled Alice.

"Yes, yours and mine and Carlos," replied the sparkling teen. "And what are we having for supper?"

Cooking was not one of Alice's many skills but she did know how to boil water. With the assistance of the other women and older teens a meal was started and ready by the time Clair brought Sam and the others in and announced they had moved everyone and everything but the gas tanker to this location.

A meeting was held after what all declared to be the best one they had eaten in years. Sam was introduced to everyone and voted a member in good standing of their group. A map was brought out and a course laid out to Alaska. Sam thought they might be able to make it to where the reports had indicated uninfected life in two jumps.

Mikey announce he had run a diagnostic on the fence using what he could salvage from the base computer and it looked like the fence would be holding for the foreseeable future. So everyone agreed they would spend a little time resting and recovering from the strain of the always on the move convoy.

"That will allow me time to investigate Umbrella from within and see what they know and maybe discover some of their plans," Mikey added enthusiastically. "We might even be able to find other groups of survivors."

With that the meeting adjourned. Mikey and Sam volunteered to take the first night's watch, spelling each other while the rest of the party claimed their sleeping quarters.

As always, Umbrella had looked after its comfort. Although only the high ranking quarters, those of Dr. Isaacs and to a lesser extent Captain Slater, could be described as luxurious all the others were quite comfortable.

Kmart led Alice and Carlos on a search of a number of sets of quarters until she found one she liked.

"Okay," announced the blonde teen. "This one will do."

"It will?"

"Sure," the teen pointed. "A bathroom for me and one for you two. A bedroom for me and one for you two. And a nice room in between for all of us."

Carlos and Alice looked at each other and managed valiantly to smother their grins. It seemed that Kmart might be taking a lot for granted but perhaps she just was seeing what everyone else did. What they did too even if neither of them had put it into words.

"Well, I'm going to bed," announced Kmart, who did manage to stifle a yawn that Alice thought didn't look too, too faked.

"First you shower and then you brush your teeth," instructed Carlos.

"If you need us for anything we'll be right here," Alice reminded the girl.

"I know." Kmart hugged them both and was hugged in return. Alice kissed the girl on the cheek and stroked her hair.

"Goodnight baby."

"Goodnight sweetie," added Carlos.

"Goodnight. I love you both."

After Kmart had gone to bed the two adults carefully cleaned their weapons. Even knowing how they felt about each other they avoided eye contact whenever one or the other looked at what was apparently "their" bedroom door. Finally Carlos mumbled something about taking a shower too and went into the room. Shortly after that Alice heard the water running.

"Finally," she though. She went into the bedroom, closing but not locking the door. Quickly she striped her boots and clothing off.

Carlos was scrubbing down when a blast of cool air rushed into the shower. That cool was immediately replaced by the warmth of Alice's body as she slid against his back and wrapped her arms around him.

"I'll scrub yours if you scrub mine."

(To Be Continued)


	6. Chapter 6

Tripod, Chapter 6 by patricia51

"I'll scrub yours if you scrub mine."

Carlos smiled, covering Alice's hands with his own as the big ex-soldier leaned back against the woman joining him in the shower. He squeezed his arms against hers and turned without dislodging Alice's grip around him.

Lips met in a kiss both of them knew that had been delayed for far too long. It wasn't a passionate kiss as much as it was a long sweet joining, showing the feelings that had been building for years between the two survivors, scared as they were together in body and soul by what they had lived through together.

Even though her bonding with the T-Virus actually made Alice the stronger of the pair she only smiled as Carlos' hands slid down her back, cupped her bottom and lifted her until she twined her arms around his neck and their eyes met at the same level. He held her there while the kiss was repeated and when they came up for air she leaned her forehead against his and smiled again.

"Nothing to say?" she teased.

"It's about damn time is all I can come up with," he replied and kissed her once more.

Alice lowered her head and nibbled Carlos' shoulder. "I know."

"But there were other things standing in the way of this. I know. And I understood."

Alice felt the hardness of his manhood against her. She leaned back, bracing her back against the slippery wetness of the shower stall and her legs circled him even as her arms relaxed until only her fingers remained on the back of his neck.

"Those things, most of them have not gone away."

"But that doesn't matter. Not here. Not now. And not with the new addition to our lives."

Alice's fingers toyed with the fine hair at the back of Carlos' neck. She purred; a sound most unlike her but one that fit the moment. That purr changed to a gasp as the pair shifted slightly and Carlos slid home into her. His hands shifted slightly, from her bottom to her hips and his face lowered till his mouth covered a waiting breast. Then he began to thrust and Alice bucked back to him with each of those thrusts. Soon the sound of the pounding water was nearly drowned by cries of passion and delight as the pair finally came together after so long and brought each other to the heights of the intimacy they had postponed for so long.

When their bodies stopped shaking Alice found her feet returned to the tile floor. Carlos kissed her and she returned it fervently.

"That was worth waiting all these years for," she whispered.

"Well," Carlos' eyes twinkled. "I don't know about THAT. You're good but I'm not certain that you're that good... UFFFFFF," he gasped for breath as Alice jabbed him in the stomach with her elbow. "Okay, okay," he grinned, kissing Alice on each eyelid as he held her. His expression softened. "It was worth every second of the wait. Now," he continued, "Let's wash up like you promised. An actual bed is waiting for us."

Alice smiled and turned. Carlos picked up the soap and a washrag and began to run both over her back. Unbelievably, even to herself, Alice giggled as Carlos deftly scrubbed her back, her bottom and then her front. She eagerly returned the favor. By the time the couple staggered out of the no longer hot water and toweled off they all but wrestled each other to the bed and started making love a second time.

In her room Kmart picked up on the sounds coming from nearby and giggled to herself. She knew what they meant. She had heard them before. But never had the thought of what was going on made her so happy. And kind of embarrassed. It's one thing when two of your friends make love. It's another thing completely when it's your parents. With that realization Kmart sighed, covered her head with her pillow and rolled over. But before she dropped off to sleep she whispered to herself.

"About time."

Alice staggered, literally, out of bed in the morning. After morning cleanup, the fun of which was added to by the discovery of unopened toothbrushes and fresh toothpaste as well as more soap and hot water, she went out into the main room. On the way she threw a pillow at a still snoring Carlos to wake him. There she found a note from Kmart saying she had got tired of waiting and gone to breakfast.

Once she was sure Carlos was up and getting dressed Alice headed towards the dining area. There she found Kmart sitting with Claire, Chase, Sam and Mikey all of whom tried very hard not to grin too broadly. Alice glared at her new daughter, a glare that immediately softened when Kmart pushed a steaming cup of what smelled suspiciously like real coffee to her. A sip was followed by a deep swallow, confirming what the scent had promised.

"My gosh, when did I last taste this?"

"I couldn't say," remarked Claire, "but when we bug out of here every can of coffee is going with us."

"Speaking of that?"

Mikey shrugged. "The fence is holding fine. No sign of any weakness much less an imminent breach."

"But that doesn't mean we should take things easy here," said Carlos as he joined them, accepting the second heavy mug that Kmart had kept in front of her. "Thank you sweetheart."

"No," said Claire. "Mikey and Sam have already started making a detailed inventory. There are two cargo containers left here. Sam knows their weight and cubic capacity well. They'll start making plans today and as soon as we load one and determine where our intermediate stop should be we'll fly it there."

"After we establish a couple of fuel resupply points along the route," added Sam firmly. Everyone nodded. It had not taken long for Sam to be accepted as a member of the group and a very important one too.

Kmart then shoved two loaded trays under her parents' noses. Carlos promptly lost interest in the discussion and started to eat. Alice wavered just long enough to ask the burning question.

"Who's cooking?"

"The freezer is loaded with prepared meals. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner all set up in ten person quantities. There's enough to get us through our stay here easily without anyone having to remember anything more than how to use a microwave."

"And a coffee pot," Carlos came up for air long enough to drain his cup before diving back into his food. Kmart and Alice shared looks that said "We're going to live with this man?" Then Alice started eating and before long she was as lost to the world as Carlos was and causing Kmart to shake her head at her choice in parents.

After breakfast the senior members gathered in the cleaned up control room. Mikey continued to browse area of the computer not destroyed by gunfire or the rampaging crimson head zombies.

"There's a mention in a report Isaac delivered about the source of the mutant zombies. It was a holographic conference so it was recorded. Doesn't say much but you probably should check his lab Alice. Somehow you're connected with them."

"I need to check there anyway. Might be some things worth carrying along."

Claire spread a map of the West/Northwest US over a handy table. "Where do you suggest fuel dumps Sam?"

The former Umbrella pilot pointed. "Here for sure. This is a perfect spot. In fact it's where I thought of trying to escape to if the opportunity ever arose."

"Why?"

"It's a small valley surrounded by ridges and mountains. No way in on foot which means no zombies. The climate catastrophe hasn't completely wrecked it either. Should something happen to Alaska this could be a fall back position. Then Sam stretched across the table. "Here would be another place. It's an old military reservation. Apparently it was abandoned at the start of the infection. Satellite pictures don't show any sign of life, or unlife for that matter."

"So what first?"

"Fuel definitely. While you all decide what to pack in the containers I'll start loading drums and a couple of portable pumps. Then I'll fly to the first point, unload and return. The second time I'll carry fuel and a pump to the second point. That will keep me busy for several days. Then we can start moving the containers, then the vehicles and finally the people."

"Sounds good. You need anything?"

"Someone to go with me. Nobody has eyes in the back of their head."

"Chase?"

The former cowboy and the pilot nodded together. They headed for the concealed hanger. Claire started rounding up everyone else. Armed with the list of items the search had come up with so far and the agreed upon priorities the survivors started moving items toward the cargo containers. Coffee was among the very first load. It was long before a trembling was felt through the complex and one of the working video cameras showed the cargo helicopter lifting off with a sling load of fuel drums under it.

Carlos and Alice, with Kmart tagging along, went in search of the late unlamented Dr. Isaac's lab. Immediately upon finding it Alice began to search for a very specific item. One that she was able to find in short order which produced a sigh of relief.

"What is that?" inquired Kmart, looking at the non-descript metal case.

Alice undid the catch and lifted the lid to show almost a dozen injector vials. "Anti-virus. Given within a reasonable time after infection it counters the T-virus. Comes in darned useful."

Carlos smiled. "As I have good reason to know."

"Why is that?"

"Curious one aren't you?" teased Carlos. "But actually honey I was bitten by a zombie back in Raccoon City when the infection first escaped. Fortunately someone was able to come up with an injector like these and preserved my good looks and radiant smile."

Alice snorted. Kmart laughed. "Well I'm very glad that someone was able to inject you."

"So am I honey," Alice assured the teen with a straight face. She looked at Carlos and the two adults smiled and looked into each other's eyes.

Kmart swallowed a groan. It was wonderful having parents again but couldn't they act their age? Always looking at each other like teenagers. She shook her head and examined a sheaf of papers on the desk while she waited for them to return to the real world. But something there caught her eye and she picked them up. With what she had been thinking it seemed perfectly natural to call out for attention the way that she did.

"Mom? These papers have your name all over them."

(To Be Continued)


	7. Chapter 7

Tripod, Chapter 7 by patricia51

"Mom? These papers have your name all over them."

Alice's heart jumped for a moment at Kmart's nearly absent minded use of her new title but concern, as well as calm acceptance of the way things were, over took her happiness.

"Let me see those sweetheart."

Quickly Alice skimmed through the papers. As she finished each one she passed it over to Carlos. By the time the pair of them finished both were looking grim enough to worry Kmart.

"We need to talk to the others."

"I agree but let's wait till Sam and Chase are back." Carlos folded the papers and stuffed them in his back pocket. "In the meantime let's look for any other sign of what this tells us. Isaacs may have left other copies or more detailed noted or hell, have vials of the serum around somewhere."

"Would one of you please tell me what's going on?" Kmart asked pointedly.

"We'll talk about it later with everyone sweetie,' replied Alice.

"If you don't give me any hints I'm going to have a hard time helping," the teen argued.

"Look through the papers here and in the filing cabinets for anything else that has your mom's name on it," said Carlos. "Hold on to them and the folder they're in, if any. And if anything mentions 'Project Alice' let us know right away."

Mollified Kmart went to work as her parents proceeded to search every inch of the lab. Indecipherable grunts and one word comments from them threatened to overcome her patience but she continued on, eventually losing herself in the search. In fact the trio got so absorbed they missed repeated calls to lunch and only came back to the world outside the lab when Claire, accompanied by Sam and Chase, arrived to find out what was going on.

"We've got a lot to discuss," Alice said grimly.

Claire sighed. "Let's adjourn to the mess hall. Might as well have coffee."

"And something to eat," said Kmart thoughtfully.

Carlos laughed and ruffled his daughter's hair. "And something to eat."

Around coffee and food Alice laid out what they had found.

"Umbrella has been after me for sometime. I knew it just as I knew they had worked some kind of mental conditioning in me after Raccoon City. That, fortunately seems to be shot now, they tried twice during the fight in Las Vegas. The first time I was able to break free and the second time they couldn't stop me at all."

"I always thought it was simply because I opposed them so strongly. Oh I knew that my body had somehow bonded with the T-Virus but I thought that was a side issue. Apparently it's not."

"What is it then?"

Carlos took over. "Isaacs took samples of Alice's blood when he was holding her in the research facility after he found her at the crash site where the helicopter went down after our escape from Raccoon City. He used that blood to try to develop a serum. Of course, being associated with Umbrella he didn't try to use it for good; to combat the spreading or create a vaccine to prevent it. No, he used it to create the Crimson Head zombies."

Alice went on in disgust. "He even diluted my blood samples because he was afraid that if they were used full strength it might completely reverse the infection and restore the subjects to normal. He didn't want that. He reported to Umbrella that he was trying to create a 'docile work force' while in reality he was creating his own army of super fast and super strong zombies."

"Incidentally, it looks like that's what caused the battle here. He was suspicious of Captain Slater because he knew Slater was loyal not to him but to Chairman Wexler."

Carlos sighed. "So he took a portion of his new zombies and hid them is a concealed room here in the lab. How he got around the AI I can't imagine but either he did or it saw nothing wrong with what he was doing. And the magnetic lock holding them in that room had to be reset manually every so often. So when Isaacs didn't come back from his little jaunt to Las Vegas the lock opened and the zombies poured out. And that was the end of everyone here. The only good thing is that Slater was just about as tough and competent as he thought he was and with only a handful of men, most of whom were not security types, he managed to achieve a mutual wipe-out."

"So what do we need to do in light of all this?" Claire asked the group at large.

"First and foremost, we need to decide what to do with this information right here," Carlos waved the papers. "Should we destroy all of these, part of these or none of them?"

"Umbrella already knows the base details about me, the bonding with the T-Virus and the experiments that Isaacs claimed he was doing," said Alice. "So that won't be telling them anything they don't already know if they recover that. But the part dealing with the Crimson Heads, that needs to vanish forever."

"Agreed," said Claire. "Alice you also need to make sure that there is no trace of your blood or any of the serum that Isaacs created from it." She shifted her attention. "Mikey, what's the chance that Umbrella can reconnect to the AI here?"

"Practically none," replied their computer expert. "The core may not have been damaged by the fighting but the links are definitely all severed. Anyone attempting to gain information will have to go all the way down into the core."

"Which they may do eventually," noted Sam. "Things are just going to get worse for the Umbrella bases, including the main one in Japan. Sooner or later they may send a team here to recover food and spare parts if nothing else."

"There's no way we can conceal that something happened here," said Chase. "What we do have to do is make sure we leave nothing here that let's any future searchers know who we were and where we went."

"There is a way we could do, beyond cleaning the facility for any trace of us as a group." said Alice. "It would be a rather scorched earth way to do it and we couldn't come back here."

Claire immediately caught the idea. "You mean open the fence to the zombies."

Alice nodded. "And the entrances. Oh sure it would take a while but sooner or latter some would wander about every place in here. If Umbrella does send a team here, well, they'd have a lot of fighting to do and that would tear the place up even more."

"Let's think about it and decide just before we leave," proposed Claire. "In the meantime there's a lot to be done."

"Including," remarked Chase. "Some strengthening of the armor and screens on our vehicles. While hopefully we won't see any more super zombies I don't think we can take the chance. Sam told me there's a metal shop off the side of the hanger."

Kmart nodded, remembering the fight at Las Vegas. After her dad had shot the pursuing zombie off her she had run to their truck and climbed. After she closed the door she had felt safe, only looking out because she was worried about Carlos and Alice and all her friends. She had been peering through the front windshield when one of the super zombies had ripped the screen off the passenger's side door. Even as she had screamed in fear she had had enough presence of mind to snatch up the sawed off shotgun in the cab with her and kill it. She certainly was in favor of stronger screens.

Claire wrote in a notepad she had taken from the control room. "Okay, anything else? How's the refueling set-up going?"

"Good. It shouldn't take more than half the available fuel to set everything up and move everyone and everything to the second jump off point. I would suggest though that before we cover everything up, if we do decide that will be the plan, that after we move out I fly as much fuel out of here as I can. We don't know where we'll ever find anymore."

"Okay."

Everyone went back to work. And stayed that way as the days passed. Loads filled the cargo containers along with any other boxes, crates and slings the survivors could find. Supplies dropped in the facility but the piles at the two intermediate increased every day. The group happily used the hot showers, the soft mattresses and the pre-cooked meals even as they found themselves increasingly eager to get on their way. Traveling had become a way of life for them and they knew that the Umbrella base was no more than a temporary refuge at best.

Kmart, Carlos and Alice grew closer together with each new day. The three of them were not a couple with a child, although that certainly was true. They were a tripod, three equal legs that mutually supported each other. None of the three of them could image being without the other two.

The vehicles, reinforced with heavy screens and armor, had been moved to the first stop. There supplies still remaining were carefully stored away. Little remained. However enough had been saved to allow for a near feast that night. The convoy members looked at each after eating and then went to bed. Celebrations would wait till they were safely in Alaska.

That night there was a change of arrangements at the apartment. Rather than go to the two separate bedrooms the trio pulled two couches together and they snuggled together on them. Carlos settled in the middle with one arm around Alice and the other around Kmart. The girls rested their heads on his broad shoulders and they all fell asleep together.

The morning saw a last breakfast and the dishes were tossed in the trash. A final survey was made, with Claire running back to Captain Slater's quarters to grab up the last packs of cigarettes she remembered seeing there. Then the helicopters took off, carrying the first loads of survivors and the final stores they had selected to the first stopping point where they would wait.

After two flights all that remained were Sam, Carlos and Alice. They filled the helo with fuel drums and Sam raced back to the safe point while the two remaining finished rigging a section of fence to fall when the supports were blown away by small explosive charges. The pair of them ignored as well as they could the hordes of the undead that could almost reach them and gathered at that fence section, sensing the presence of living people.

The hidden entrance under the table in the falling down wooden house was left open, as was the helo pad with one last set of packaged fuel drums waiting for Sam. They carefully stepped away from those drums before lighting up a smoke each.

"Wow," laughed Carlos. "I can't get used to real machine made cigarettes after the bridge sweepings we've been smoking up till now."

"Don't get too used to them," Alice poked him in the ribs. "No smoking. We agreed to set..."

"A good example for Kmart," Carlos finished. "I know."

"Here comes Sam," noted Alice after what would have been a very long wait had they not sheltered under some boxes and fooled around a little.

The helo gently let down, hovering just above the opening to the hanger. Carlos fastened the sling to the hook on the chopper's belly and they climbed aboard, flashing Sam a thumb's up as they did. With a nod the former Umbrella pilot lifted off. He steadied for a moment and Alice pressed the button of the remote detonator. The fence fell and the zombies began to wander into the formerly restricted area.

The flight was peaceful enough that the two relaxed their guard a bit and just enjoyed it. They reached the staging area. It was the first time that either Carlos or Alice had seen it and they were both impressed by the careful arrangement of the moved supplies as well as the sheer impassibility of the rock walls, on the edge of one being where the camp had been laid out. The entire canyon looked to cover a number of square miles and Sam was right; green vegetation showed all over.

Repeating the hover maneuver the helo lowered until the fuel drums rested on the ground. Carlos triggered the release of the cable and Sam flew over and landed next to the smaller chopper that Claire had flown in. The two passengers hopped out while Sam shut the engine down.

Claire, Mikey, Chase and the other adults were there to greet them. The smiles that Carlos and Alice had been wearing slipped as they noted the grim expressions on the waiting faces. An icy hand gripped Alice's heart and she looked wildly around.

"Where is she?" Alice shouted in near panic.

"We don't know," said Claire. "She's missing."

(To Be Continued)

(The idea of a family as a tripod was the idea of the famed fantasy writer and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis who wrote that a couple was unstable until their first child became the third leg and formed the family into a stable tripod. Of course this was all theoretical to him at the time he wrote it because he would not meet his future wife Joy Gresham or his two stepsons for many years latter. But I have always loved the image.)


	8. Chapter 8

Tripod, Chapter 8 by patricia51

"We don't know," said Claire. "She's missing."

"How?" asked Carlos simply. Alice, for once in her life, was frozen by shock.

"Apparently, and this is a guess," said Chase, "She wandered off once we had scouted the area and confirmed there were no zombies. Once we knew something was wrong, when she didn't answer our calls, we followed her trail for about a quarter of a mile. There are signs of a struggle but after that we can't pick up anything." He looked embarrassed. "Not that any of us are exactly Daniel Boone or any one like that."

"Why would she wander off?" asked Alice of everyone and no one. "She knows how dangerous this world is."

"Flowers," said Carlos as he shaded his eyes and looked out across the valley.

"What?"

He pointed. "Flowers." Sprouting up individually and in clumps, white and yellow flowers stretched down the now beaten trail and beyond. "When was the last time any of us saw flowers? She wouldn't have been able to resist them."

Alice, with Carlos and the others close behind, ran down the trampled grass to the spot where the trail ended. She pointed to where a bunch of picked flowers were spilled. "She was picking a bouquet."

Unspoken but in every one's minds was the knowledge that the missing teen would have been picking them for Alice.

The woman prowled around the torn up area, looking closely at everything and anything. She hissed in anger and dismay.

"I can't see anything to say which way she was taken." She looked at Carlos. "I can't tell where she's gone."

"Okay, Calm down Honey," the big ex-soldier touched his partner on the shoulder lightly but firmly. "If you can't see anything try closing your eyes and feel for her with your mind. See if you can sense her danger as you sensed mine."

Alice took a deep breath and closed her eyes. They popped open immediately and she looked at the group. "If anyone says 'Use the force' or 'Stretch out your feelings' I will be tempted to stretch them out." She closed her eyes again and stood absolutely still. Far from teasing her, everyone around her held their breath.

"She's there." Alice's eyes remained closed but her arm shot out, her finger pointing the way. "I can feel her. She's alright but she's scared."

In the now abandoned and zombie haunted Umbrella North American facility an undamaged sensor caught the vibrations it continuously searched for and identified them as the mental powers being used of the target it had been created to look for. Following its program it attempted to pass the information to the facility AI but found the pathway blocked. It switched to its secondary coding and tried to establish a connection link to transmit to an Umbrella satellite in orbit. That also failed. Unable to be petulant about failure the sensor followed its programming, recorded the information and returned to its unsleeping monitoring.

Alice snapped "Let's go Carlos and started across the valley only to be brought up short by his hand on her arm. What is it?"

"They, and it had to be 'They' because I don't think one person could have carried her off without her making some kind of sound, took her alive and she's still alive so we can assume that she will stay that way at least for a while. Since I'm sure a pair or larger group is involved and that they are aware she wasn't alone there's a good chance someone is watching the back trail for a pursuit. Let's wait until twilight. We'll be nearly invisible in the lower stretches of the valley while anyone higher up, as a watcher would be, will be much easier to spot."

"That makes sense," admitted Alice. "Only..."

"Only what?"

"I'm scared. What if something happens to her?"

Carlos enfolded Alice in a hug. "I'm scared too. But it's the best plan. We'll get her back."

"All we can do now is wait."

Kmart knew she was in trouble, serious deep very bad trouble. Not that she had been kidnapped by what appeared to be the strongarm goons of some whacky self-proclaimed "Number One Leader", No what scared her was that she was well aware that when this was over, and she had every confidence it would end well, that her Mom was going to KILL her.

Maybe she could take refuge behind her Dad. He would be so happy to see her that the odds were she could keep him between her and her Mom until finally Alice would calm down. She hoped. Maybe it would work.

Of course she wasn't too happy with herself right now anyway. In this world gone mad how could she have lowered her gaurd enough to be taken unaware by Tweedledee and Tweedledum as she had termed the two heavily built, heavily armed, and scantily brained henchman of the Master Goofball? She knew better and that would be the thing her Mom would be maddest about.

She had lost what Dad called her "situational awareness". He had tried to teach her that no matter what she was thinking about, no matter what she focused on, she always had to be aware of her surroundings and any changes to them. She though she had learned that. But she had never had to cope with the amazement that had overcome her when she saw the flowers springing up among the green grass of this valley. When had she last seen such a sight? Long ago, long before she took her new name.

She hadn't meant to scramble down out of sight of the others. And she certainly had not intended to lose track of time and keep wandering on and on. She had been so enthralled, picking the flowers and trying to decide where she could hide the bunch of them to triumphantly produce when they got to Alaska and decorate their new home with them.

So she had been walking with her head down and her concentration of the next group of flowers when the first man had suddenly appeared in front of her. She should have screamed but instead she had spun on one heel and started to run back towards Claire and the others. That's when she had run right into the other man. The shock had knocked her backwards and before she could recover herself a huge hand had covered her mouth and she had been grabbed and carried off regardless of her struggles.

They had carried her up along a rocky shelf that would keep anyone from finding their footprints. Obviously she wasn't the first girl that these guys had taken. In one way she was kind of impressed by the stealth they showed. Big guys like this weren't usually that nimble on their feet.

As much as she could Kmart memorized the route she was being taken on in case she had the opportunity to escape on her own. But the vigilance of the pair never wavered and she was carried completely across the valley to a hidden cleft in the rock wall. To her surprise, the narrow way opened into another, although much smaller, valley complete with fields and houses. People were working the fields with hand tools. She observed that they didn't look very happy. Or well fed. Or clean. The pair carrying her along was all three.

The two abductors homed in on the biggest building. What were obviously guards opened the massive wooden door allowing them entrance and then closed it behind them. Then the kidnappers were ungently depositing her at the foot of a rather elaborate carved throne on which sat a very large, very fat man wearing a strange outfit sewn with sequins and an even stranger looking headdress that was supposed to be some sort of crown she guessed.

"Kneel before The Roger, King of the World and Lord of Hidden Valley," commanded the man on her left, bowing deeply as he uttered the first words he had spoken since he and his partner had grabbed her. Since he pushed her down at the same time she didn't have any choice but to comply.

"Well done thou faithful servants," boomed the man atop the throne. "You have brought someone from outside who looks to be worthy of me. Stand her so I may look her over. And let her look upon me so she may behold my glory."

The pair pulled Kmart to her feet and turned her around and around. She had already been peeking at this guy's glory from under her lowered eyelids and she had to admit that she wasn't impressed much.

"I should see more of her before deciding but it would not be fit for her to be displayed as she is. Take her away to the women's quarters and prepare her properly. After dinner she may be brought back and I will determine if she is indeed worthy to be blessed by my ultimate manliness."

Okay, Kmart decided she didn't like the sound of that at all. It smacked a little too much of a desire to see her in too little and then get too close to her. Not that she wasn't old enough to know about sex and to have started having some interesting thoughts and had begun to explore her own body but she wasn't ready for what this guy seemed to be implying.

However at least she wasn't being eaten by zombies so there was still hope. In the meantime she had to keep things under control until her parents did get here. That they would she never had the slightest doubt. And under control meant that she needed to keep Nutcase there from going any further into outer space, where he must have been from judging from his talk.

So instead of following her first impulse, which was to ask him when the Mother Ship was coming back to pick him up, a line she vaguely recalled from the time before this, she bowed her head and kept quiet as The Roger went into a long, passionate and pretty much incoherent speech. At the end of the rant a goon took each of her arms and the pair led her away through a long hallway to a side room and left her.

Kmart examined the door. Locked from the outside and too thick to break through. She walked the walls. No windows. There was another door but she discovered it only led to a bathroom built around a huge tub.

A rattle brought her attention back to the door. She debated trying something but the idea was squashed as soon as it arose. One of the goons opened the door and stood watch as a pair of women entered, carrying an assortment of towels and clothing. The big guard grunted and closed the door from the outside. The lock snicked again.

Kmart eyed the two new women. Both were older than she was by maybe five to ten years. Both looked worn but in this world who didn't? Both seemed resigned, shuffling to the bathroom where the sound of water running soon arose.

A steam began to billow through the door one of the women reappeared. She beckoned to Kmart.

"You need to disrobe and take a bath" she said in a toneless voice. "We will help if you need us to do so. Then you must rest and prepare your mind properly until you are called for. At that time you will done this bridal dress and be escorted back to the throne room where The Roger will accept you as his latest bride."

Kmart folded her arms across her chest and glared at the pair. "Not no but HELL NO."

The one who had not spoken sighed. "Yes, we understand how you must feel." She looked fearfully at the door and lowered her voice. "If we could stop it we would but we are helpless. Only those who follow Roger have weapons. The rest of us are kept separated, punished if we do not follow orders and even imprisoned. Better to go along with the madman rather than suffer his wrath."

It was on the tip of Kmart's tongue to tell them that two of the most dangerous people left on the Earth were on their way but she didn't. What good would it do to threaten people who were as helpless as she was? And why give any warning as to what she was darned sure would soon descend on this place?

So she gave in. She took the bath, and rather reveled in the mounds of soapy bubbles that were produced from a liquid added to the water. For just a few minutes she was able to forget the fix she was in. She allowed the two women to dry her off. Then they left her and she stretched out on the bed and actually managed to doze.

A knock on the door heralded the return of the women. They helped her dress. Kmart blushed as she looked at herself. While the garment was floor length it was nothing but lace panels that did nothing to hide her teenaged body. Her Dad would have a FIT if he saw her in this. The goons came in and without looking directly at her escorted her back to the original room where the head wacko waited for her among a crowd of people. Some looked eager. Most looked sad and unhappy and she saw sympathy on many of the faces.

The way he looked at her as she was paraded in front of him sent cold chills down her back. She tried to keep her face calm as he stood, proclaiming again in a loud voice how he was honoring her. She almost broke as he dropped the robe he was swathed in, revealing his nude corpulent body and the erection straining from his groin. Apparently the "marriage" was going to take place in front of the whole room.

Well being raped wouldn't kill her. But she promised herself that if this obscenity went through she would do something unspeakable to him before it was all over.

He started down the steps. For just an instant it seemed like sanity broke through and his voice became nearly normal.

"I'm glad to see that you are going along with this. This is your new life. No one from your old one will find you here."

Exactly as though on cue the outside door exploded in pieces. When the debris settled a woman was standing in the doorway. Her hands rested on the butts of two pistols strapped to her hips. A shotgun was slung over one shoulder and the hilts of two long knives of some type jutted from where they were strapped to her back. Blue eyes blazed with a fury that made the men in the room shrink back, including Roger before he remembered how omnipotent and unassailable he was.

"Who the hell are you and how dare you interrupt this ceremony?" he asked, attempting to force boldness and confidence back into his voice even though he was visibly shaken.

"My name," replied the woman, "is Alice. And I've come for my daughter." Faster than the eye could follow the pistols leaped into her hands and gunfire filled the room.

(To Be Continued) 


	9. Chapter 9

Tripod, Chapter 9 by patricia51

"My name," replied the woman "is Alice. And I've come for my daughter." Faster than the eye could follow the pistols leaped into her hands and gunfire filled the room.

The goons, being obviously big, strong, heavily armed and holding Kmart were the first to go even as they struggled to draw their weapons. Guards standing on either side of the throne got one wild shot off each before joining their comrades.

The rest of the adversaries were a bit harder to identify. At least until The Roger did Alice the favor of screaming for his faithful subjects to attack the "blasphemer". The surge of men mixed with a few women who rushed the commanding figure in the doorway nearly overcame her.

But nearly wasn't enough when dealing with Alice who, unlike the poser on the throne, actually WAS much more than a normal human. For a moment the pile buried her. Then bodies flew in all directions and the rescuer appeared again, her long knives bloody in her hands.

Kmart was so astounded at the sight of her mother taking on fifteen to one odds and winning that she nearly missed the sound of thunderous footsteps behind her. But once again, almost didn't count. This time the teen had not let herself become overly focused on one thing to the exclusion of her surroundings. So when The Roger attempted to grab her she was able to nimbly dodge sideways and took the opportunity to kick him on the side of his knee. Barefoot, the blow didn't have the impact it would have otherwise had but the huge man's weight told against him and he fell sideways, screaming in pain as his knee gave way.

"It works!" thought the teen in excitement. It was one of the martial arts moves that her Dad had taught her to use to cripple and immobilize someone.

"Remember it won't kill a zombie but it would keep it from walking properly and allow you to get away if you are caught unarmed or low on ammo. It will work better on a human adversary though. I hope you never have to use these moves but better that you should be able to defend yourself."

Poised now, her feet spread apart and balanced, her hands at the ready Kmart gave Roger the once over and decided the blubbering mountain was too busy cradling his knee and wailing like a baby to do anything dangerous. She checked her surroundings, realizing that the gunfire had stopped.

Her Mom stood like the unblinking statue of some Warrior Goddess, smoke still curling from the muzzles of her pistols. Then she dropped the magazines, performed some amazing sleight of hand the teen could barely follow and slid the reloaded weapons into their holsters. Without taking her eyes off the room she squatted for a moment and retrieved the nearly empty magazines.

"Always reload when you have the opportunity," Kmart recalled her Mom telling her. "It's incredibly easy to lose track of how many shots you've fired. And unlike an old western movie you don't get to fire a six-shooter fifteen times without reloading. When your gun is empty it's empty and when you're facing a charging zombie at point blank range that is NOT the time to discover that you're only clicking the hammer at it."

Of course she didn't usually carry a fire-arm. She knew how to use the shotgun clamped to the inside door of the truck, as the events of the fight in Las Vegas had proved. And recently both her Mom and Dad had started intensively training her to shoot. She filed away as a possible offensive weapon in the argument she was going to shortly be involved in that if she HAD been armed she might not have been carried off so easily. Maybe that would help.

Or maybe not. The look in her Mom's eyes as she crossed the floor to her promised the grounding to end all groundings. Kmart wondered if she would be able to get out of the house they all hoped to find in Alaska before she turned forty. Then she was swept up in a fierce embrace, lifting her off her feet and nearly squeezing the breath from her. Her eyes swam with tears and for a moment she was sure she heard her Mom give a muffled sob before she was deposited back on the floor and held at arms' length.

"YOU, young lady, are in SO much trouble!"

"Yes, ma'am," was all Kmart could think to say.

"And what in the world are you dressed in? If your Father sees you in that outfit he'll have a litter of kittens."

"Daddy's here too?" Somehow the diminutive term fit. Kmart was suddenly feeling very much like a little girl.

"Of course he is. I left him polishing off the outside guards. By now he should be finished." A firm and familiar tread resonated through the room as Carlos entered. He stopped short.

"What... are... you... wearing?"

"It's her wedding dress," said a soft voice. One of the two women who had helped her bathe had come forward.

Carlos raised an eyebrow. "Married? To whom?"

"To him," Kmart indicated the still groaning Roger stretched out on the floor.

Carlos stepped over to the prostrate petty tyrant and squatted down. "I realize that I come from a different culture originally but my upbringing taught me that you never ask for a young woman's hand in matrimony until you have discussed the matter with her parents. I do not recall this being done." He shifted to look at Alice. "Did I forget or simply miss this talk my love?"

"No you did not my husband," replied Alice with a perfectly straight face.

"I thought not. And you, my sweet," continued Carlos with just the faintest trace of mockery in his voice and face. "Did you agree to this?" He didn't wait for the answer he knew was going to be forthcoming. His visage hardened. "No one, NO ONE, tries to rape my daughter under the guise of a forced marriage. Or any other way." He snatched his submachine gun from its position slung around his shoulder and pointed it at Roger.

"Wait, please," said that soft hesitant voice again.

"Yes," groaned Roger, "Make them spare me Denise. I command it."

Denise ignored the man on the floor. "Have you really killed all the guards?"

"Sorry," Carlos sounded anything but apologetic. "But they really didn't give us much choice."

Drawn by the sound of gunfire the room had slowly filled up with people, more than Alice had thought there would be. They were generally all gaunt, poorly dressed and their faces showed wariness and fear. A murmur spread through them as the fear began to give way to anger and then determination. They clutched a variety of implements, mostly farm tools. The ones who had empty hands began to pick up items scattered across the floor or from the walls.

For one heart-stopping moment Alice thought the group was coming for her and her family. Then they surged by her, their eyes fixed on the form of Roger. Sticks, hoes, pipes and other assorted items began to fall and rise. There were shouts, screams, pleas and commands which slowly faded away as the crowd beat the man on the floor until he had no resemblance to a human being at all.

Carlos had turned Kmart away from the sight and led her away. Not that he objected to her knowing her would-be husband/rapist was getting what he deserved for crimes the tall man didn't even want to think about but he didn't want her to see it. Besides, he really needed to find something to cover his daughter properly.

Once the anger of the crowd was spent the quiet spoken woman directed a few of the men to carry the bodies out and bury them. Roger had to be scraped up into an old tarp before his remains could be dealt with. Other started to clean up the hall and when that was accomplished.

The same woman who had spoken before came up to the trio. Tears were in her eyes. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," replied Alice. "Now could you tell me just what in the world was taking place here?"

"Maybe I should start at the beginning?"

"A very good place to start," hummed Carlos, returning with Kmart who was now dressed in her regular clothes, having led her Father to the room where she had been dressed and bathed. He responded to the strange looks given to him from all three women. "What? I can't have enjoyed the 'Sound of Music'?"

"Before the infection and the collapse of everything this small area was home to a few farming and ranching families. This canyon led to the outside and a small village had sprung up here over the years. This particular house was owned by the local prominent family who were descendants of the original settlers of the area back in the 1800's.

"We didn't have enough people to justify a doctor setting up practice here so everyone made do with me. I'm Sally by the way, Sally Jenson and I'm a Nurse Practitioner. We did have a general store that stayed unusually well stocked because during the winters we could count of being snowed in for weeks or even months at a time.

"When the news first began to spread about the infection most of us didn't believe it. But it worried a couple of us. Bill, the owner of the store, ordered in extra heavy more than once. When it became obvious the world was falling apart he managed to convince two truck drivers to make a last run to the warehouse, get their families and bring them and all the supplies they could gather back here. At the same time I took a chance and ran to the nearest big city and filled my Truck and camper shell with all the medications I could beg, borrow or steal.

"While we were gathering together to discuss what to do Roger, the head of the first family took action. He had his workers blow closed the narrow gap to the outside world with dynamite he had somehow acquired in large quantities. Then he took control of the valley. He had stockpiled automatic weapons and ammunition and had already brought in some survivalist types who obeyed him completely.

"We tried to resist. Western people are notoriously independent and every family owns a least one rifle and shotgun. But Winchesters are no match for M-16's. There was a lot of blood shed; including that of my husband, but when the smoke cleared Roger had triumphed.

"He was clever as well as ruthless. He set up a hierarchy, each level being marginally better off than the one under it. People were scared of losing what little privileges they had so they went along with him. And then there were the ones who saw the way the wind was blowing and attached themselves to his coattails. Even when his insanity began to creep over him; when he became convinced that he was some kind of god-like creature they stuck with him."

"Loyalty can be bought," noted Carlos.

Sally nodded. "And fear speaks also. Nobody wanted to risk being kicked to the bottom of the heap, the ones you saw with the farm tools. They're nothing more than slave field hands."

"Did any one else ever make it in from outside?' asked Alice.

"Yes, that's how come those henchmen of Roger's happened to come upon your daughter. There have been several parties that made it over the rim successfully. The first two were wiped out. The next two were enslaved. The last one, just a month ago put up a tremendous resistance. The leader especially was very tough and very capable." Sally looked at Alice. "She wasn't as good as you are but she was good."

"Was?"

"Wrong tense I guess. Her fighting was good but she's not had the opportunity to do much of that lately. I don't know why he didn't kill her, well, maybe I do, she's very attractive, but he's kept her locked up in a cell at the old Sheriff's Department substation."

Carlos slowed for a moment. "I think I know where that is. Stout adobe type building? Southwestern style with steel bars over the windows and a heavy door?"

"That's it. How did you know?"

"I circled the settlement here taking care of any armed man I saw. There were two sitting right inside the front door. They're still sitting there," he added. "But I didn't go any further into the building. As it was I was nearly late for the main attraction."

"I just have to see who this woman is who seems to be nearly as good as me," said Alice.

"Worried you might have some competition?" teased Carlos.

"Humphhh," was Alice's only reply. Kmart smothered a giggle.

The quartet reached the old building. Carlos found a set of keys on an iron ring and unlocked the door that Sally pointed out. The hallway was quiet and dusty. No one was in the steel cages on either side. At Alice's unspoken question Sally pointed at the heavy wooden door at the far end.

"Roger kept her in isolation there, hoping to break her spirit."

Carlos slid the indicated key into the slot in the door and turned it. The lock yielded and the heavy door swung outward. Light from the corridor poured in, illuminating the figure cuffed to the metal cot. The woman looked at the doorway while raising an arm to shield her eyes. The arm did nothing to hide features familiar to both Alice and Carlos.

"Should have known," remarked Alice.

"Uh-huh," agreed Carlos.

"Officer Jill Valentine I presume?"

(To Be Continued) 


	10. Chapter 10

Tripod, Chapter 10 by patricia51

(Just as I wanted to change how events unfolded in the movie so I decided that at least one event described in the novelization did not take place the way that Alice thinks she remembers it.)

"Officer Jill Valentine I presume?"

In a hushed whisper that barely resembled the voice of the confident, capable former STARS officer Alice and Carlos had known and survived horrific times with the prisoner replied.

"Alice?"

"And me," said Carlos as he dropped to one knee and began to unfasten the heavy metal restraints. He grunted angrily when the dim light revealed the festering sores on their friend's wrists and ankles.

"Carlos." Jill's voice sounded like she was trying to identify someone she had known in another lifetime. Perhaps it was for her. As soon as the chains feel to the floor the big ex-Umbrella soldier gently scooped Jill up in his arms.

"Bring her to my clinic," directed Sally, who led the way to a small but surprisingly well equipped miniature hospital where the Nurse Practitioner began to gently clean and bandage Jill's wounds.

"I'm surprised you still have such a stock of medications," commented Alice.

"That's because I have only been allowed to treat Roger and his followers," said Sally bitterly. "No one else. Last year I was beaten for seeing to an eight year old girl who had an infection that would only respond to antibiotics. Which of course I was expressly forbidden to use. The stock on hand had to be kept for Roger and the goons."

"But?"

"But I used them anyway." Sally shrugged. "The beating was worth it. But he told me the next time I disobeyed his orders he would kill my patient."

"More and more I seem to be glad that Roger no longer inhabits this vale of tears but has gone on to whatever reward he deserves," commented Carlos.

"Which reward was probably confined to the words 'Express elevator down is over there'," added Alice. She shook her head. "He's not important anymore. How is Jill?"

"Her wounds are infected," said Sally as she filled a syringe and gave Jill the second injection she had used so far. "She's malnourished and has been severely beaten a number of times. Roger let me attend her occasionally. He wanted to keep her as an example to pull out now and then to show what happened to those who defied him."

"Knowing Jill she probably defied him quite a lot," remarked Carlos.

"She did." Sally put up her instruments, including the used syringe which she carefully placed in a container holding several others. Noting their interest she explained.

"Of course reusing needles is not a good idea but there just aren't going to be anymore made after all. So I sterilize these and reuse them as needed. She drew a blanket up over Jill. "I gave her something to help her sleep and take care of the pain. You can talk to her in the morning. I'll keep an eye on her."

"Thank you," said Alice simply.

Another woman entered the clinic. She whispered to Sally and then left, edging away from the outsider family as though she was afraid of them.

"What's with her?" asked Kmart.

"She came to tell me that there's a feast being prepared. It seems that there's more food, a LOT more food, hidden away than Roger let anyone besides his followers know about. Wine, even pre-infection whiskey. You three are invited as are your friends across the valley."

"That's great but that's not what I meant," objected the teen. "That woman looked like she was scared to death of my Mom and Dad."

Surprisingly Sally laughed. "And you too I bet," She sobered and explained. "Most of the people here have been so crushed by Roger and his crew that they re pretty naturally going to be afraid of the people that took him out. And that includes you young lady. Those who didn't see you put Roger on the floor are going to have heard about it by now.

"They'll all get over it. But it's going to take a while before the people here are going to be able to walk around with their heads up and look people in the eye. They will eventually, I know most of them and they were a good hard-working bunch before all this happened. But right now they're in shock and they're scared. It might not make sense but people get into a routine. No matter how bad it is they get used to it. They feel like they know their place. Then something comes along and upsets the apple cart."

"That's what's happened here for the third time. First there was the world wide infection and then Roger's takeover. And now that society, as perverse as it was, has been destroyed and they have to deal with that. They will. Give them time."

"Speaking of time," responded Kmart, shifting from one foot to the other, "is it time to eat yet?"

"I swear honey," Carlos put his arm around his daughter, "food, food, food. That's all you think about sometime."

Promising to send something to Sally, the trio headed back to the main hall. And the food was incredible. As much as they had reveled in what they had found at the Umbrella base this topped it completely. The food was FRESH. The vegetables had been picked right out of the garden that same day. Fish had been swimming in the small lake and chickens pecking in their pen that morning. Freshly baked pies waited for desert. It took both her parents to keep Kmart from devouring a cherry pie all by herself, especially when combined with a glass of milk taken from the cow only hours before.

That evening, after putting their exhausted daughter to bed, the pair took turns visiting Jill. Since she was still sleeping the visits were short and they settled down for the night themselves.

"Carlos?"

"Yes Alice?"

'When we first got back together things were crazed. Then we moved in to the Umbrella facility and we were busy becoming both a couple and a family. There hasn't been time to talk about what happened with you and the others after I left."

"True." Carlos thought for a moment. He shook his head. "There's not that much to cover honey. At least not from that time until LJ and I were separated from Jill and Angie."

The pair remained quiet for a while. Both were retracing their steps from the moment when Alice had burst through the front doors of the Umbrella research facility only to be confronted by a guard force that even she would have fallen before. Even as she had nerved herself to make the futile attempt anyway a black limo had pulled and disgorged a pair of uniformed Umbrella operatives. Operatives that were in fact Jill and Carlos. Using forged documents they had taken Alice into custody and whisked her away along with LJ and Angie.

The quintet had fled the state, trying to get as far away from Umbrella as they could. They had ditched the limo and uniforms after clearing the city and taken to a previously stashed car with civilian clothing. They had thought they were free and clear. It hadn't been until much latter that Alice had realized that she was anything but free from Umbrella in general and Dr. Isaacs in particular.

"When I left," she began hesitantly.

"You had your reasons, I know. You were afraid that Umbrella was tracking you and would lead them to all of us. At that time it was just becoming apparent how widespread the infection was and Umbrella felt they had resources to spare to clean up embarrassing survivors like us." Carlos snorted. "They were still worried about preserving a good image even as the results of their experiments destroyed the world."

"It was more than that honey. Yes, Isaacs had taken the opportunity to insert implants into me along with a program that allowed him to use connect to them. Other than the fact it somehow used the way the T-Virus bonded to me I have no idea how it worked. There were ways to hide from the connection. Generally unless someone with the right equipment was very close they used satellite monitoring and as long as I kept out from under those satellites or remained under sufficient cover then they couldn't find me."

A frightened look such as Carlos had never seen in his companion's eyes appeared. "But it was more than that," she repeated. "That tracking program was connected to a communication program. An Umbrella operative with the right computer and software could use that tracking link to connect to my mind and the other implants there. And when they did," the former security chief winced," When they did, they could make me do things."

"So Umbrella made you leave?"

"No, they tried to stop me from leaving. They had already made me do things, minor things like destroying the tape from Terri's video camera which Jill had rescued from the crash site. Even though they had done a good job discrediting it, the existence of proof of their involvement in the Raccoon City debacle was unacceptable."

"The point of it was they started with minor things and then upped the ante. I say 'they' when it should be 'he'. Isaacs was obsessed with the T-Virus, with me, with Nemesis, with all of it. He actually thought he was creating the future as he destroyed the present."

Carlos had wrapped his arms around Alice, holding her tightly. She rested her head on his chest as she continued.

"For better or worse, Isaacs got impatient. Before he had established his control over me he pushed me too far."

"What was it?" asked Carlos quietly.

"He tried to make me kill Angie."

"Oh my God. Why would he do such a thing?"

"I can only guess that he felt if he could make me kill a child than he could make me do anything. Isaacs was like that. To him all people, hell, the whole world, just existed to provide subjects and a testing ground for his research." she sighed. "If he had just turned that fanaticism to curing cancer or something like that he could have been a Noble Prize winner and world famous."

"Well that explains a lot," said Carlos. "The note you left said that you had come to realize that you were a danger to us and that Umbrella was closer than any of us imagined. And when Jill was comforting Angie about your sudden departure she, Angie that is, said something about the two of you talking when suddenly you went very still. You stayed that way for a minute or more. Just when Angie thought she should get the rest of us because she feared you were having some sort of seizure you suddenly blinked and acted like you were waking up. Then you looked right at her said 'I'm so sorry' and left the room."

"That's when I knew I had to go. If I had hurt Angie I never could have forgiven myself, no matter how much under the control I was of Umbrella when it happened. And none of you would have forgiven me either."

"Especially Jill," said Carlos. "You know she feels about Angie.

Alice nodded. She remembered coming upon Jill and Angie as they fled from the Lickers in the school lunchroom kitchen, Jill was relentless in keeping herself between the young girl and the undead pursuers. She remembered the fight at the helicopter and how Jill covered Angie with her own body even as she picked off the charging Umbrella guards. She remembered the chat with Angie about the school and what happened there and how the girl had told about feeling safe and warm when Jill found her even though she knew they were still in a tremendous amount of danger.

And it hadn't ended there. After they had rescued her from Umbrella it had been obvious to Alice how Jill took care of Angie, watching out for her at every turn. As she thought she spoke.

"Jill feels about Angie like I do about Kmart!"

"You're just realizing that?" teased Carlos. "I saw it a long time ago. Yes, Angie is Jill's daughter now. She has been for sometime." He grew thoughtful. "Honey, not to dreg up bad memories or create worry, but if Umbrella could have nearly made you hurt Angie..."

"Could they make me hurt you? Or Kmart?"

"Yes," he simply replied.

"Not any more, thank you God. They twice tried to take control of me during the fight at Las Vegas. The first time they held me motionless, I suspect so that Isaacs' pet zombies could kill me and make my body available to him. I was able to fight free and then the second attempt barely slowed me down. I hope I'm not being over-confident but I think I have broken their control. I felt something burn out and that something fortunately wasn't me."

Satisfied Carlos held Alice closer and the pair drifted off to sleep, although both got up in the night to check on their daughter. In the morning it wasn't until they were dressed and headed for breakfast that Alice reminded Carlos they hadn't talked about what had happened to the foursome after she had left.

"After you left where?" asked a familiar female voice.

The trio turned and smiled.

"Hi Claire!" exclaimed Kmart as she rushed over to hug her friend. The convoy leader hugged her back and stroked her hair.

"Well it looks like everything turned out for the best," she observed as the teen darted over to bestow hugs on Mikey, Chase and Sam; followed by the other younger survivors who trailed the adults into what was now the dining hall.

"It did," replied Alice.

"Everyone sat down together and talked as they ate. As they finished Sally came into the hall and was introduced to the arrivals. After exchanging greetings the nurse turned to Alice and Carlos.

"Your friend Jill is awake and asking for you two. I had to assure her that you were not a figment of the delirium she has suffered from because of the infection." Sally shook her head. "It's good that this all happened now, her illness was much more serious than I realized. Another week and it might have been too late."

Carlos and Alice, with Kmart in tow along with Claire who had never met Jill Valentine but had heard about her from Carlos followed Sally to the clinic. Jill was propped up in the bed. A smile crossed her face for a moment as she took in her two old friends and then crumpled.

"Carlos, Alice I need your help." The alarmed pair realized the former STARS officer was about to break down in tears. "I've lost her. They've taken her and I can't find her."

(To Be Continued)

(I was going to get into the back story and what happened after the time Alice left the others and then what took place with each pair but that's going to have to wait for the next chapter.)


	11. Chapter 11

Tripod, Chapter 11 by patricia51

"Carlos, Alice I need your help." The alarmed pair realized the former STARS officer was about to break down in tears. "I've lost her. They've taken her and I can't find her."

No one, with the exception of Claire, need to ask who the "her" Jill was talking about. Kmart had hear enough bits and pieces from her parents, especially from Carlos even before he became her Father to know who Jill was and have an some knowledge about Angie. The convoy leader simply held her silence, figuring she would find out everything in due course. She let Carlos and Alice take the lead. They had hastily explained who Jill was to them. Something in that description rang a faint bell in Claire's mind but she couldn't put her finger on it. Anyway, it wasn't important now.

"How? What happened?"

"Alice has Carlos had time to fill you in on what happened after you left?"

"No. He started to last night but we sort of ran out of steam and fell asleep first."

"Hmmm." Jill looked at Alice. She looked at Carlos. Then she grinned for a moment. "About time." Her face returned to its look of loss.

"When you left us we were stunned at first even with the note you left behind. It was Angie who seemed to sense there was more to it than just a worry that Umbrella could track you. But we trusted your judgment. So we stayed together and kept on the move as much as we could."

"We had traveled south after getting you back so we made a radical change of direction and went northwest. At first we were simply keeping a low profile from Umbrella. Then after the infection began to spread we had to dodge that as well as the zombies it was creating."

"You recall that Angie originally had four tubes of anti-virus. She had used two of them at her school and a third one went to cure Carlos. The one remaining we guarded as jealously as any King ever guarded his gold."

"It wasn't until the infection reached its height that Angie had an idea." Jill turned her attention on Alice. "Did you know that one of the items we recovered from the helicopter crash was Charles Ashford s laptop? Major Cain had brought it along in case he needed to force the Doctor into contacting Angie and luring her, and the rest of us, to the proper site."

"No I didn't and thank goodness for that," replied Alice. At Jill's lifted eyebrow Alice rapidly explained the compulsions that Isaacs had programmed in her and how she had finally broken free of them. "I'm sure if I had known about the computer Isaacs would have too and tried to make me steal or destroy it."

Jill nodded in understanding. "Angie found enough notes in her Father's files that led us to believe we could duplicate the anti-virus." She sighed. "As it turned out we couldn't find a reversal agent, but using the one remaining tube we had we were able to make a weak version that would prevent the airborne infection from taking hold although it would not stop direct transfer as would happen with a bite."

Tears filled the former STARS officer's eyes. "It was all Angie's work. Then we had to decide what to do with it. We couldn't just keep it for ourselves. The world was falling apart but some government agencies were still functioning. We decided to take what we had to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta."

Carlos took over as Jill tried to regain her self control. "We had to slip through legions of zombies. The entire city of Atlanta seemed to have been infected. But we managed to reach the CDC labs. And that's where we split up because that's where we walked into an Umbrella trap. It seemed that the government had collapsed completely and Umbrella was now in charge everywhere, just like they had always wanted to be."

Jill resumed the narrative. "I don't think the trap was aimed at us in particular. Rather it was to scoop up any research scientists who made it there. It just so happened that one of the Umbrella employees there had been an assistant to Doctor Ashford at one time and recognized Angie."

"It was Carlos who got us out of there," Jill smiled at her friend. "Somehow he had hung on to his Umbrella credentials. He took the usual Umbrella supervisor attitude, all self-important and blustering and throwing his indignant weight around at being treated like we were. He almost pulled it off."

"Almost," agreed Carlos, "but that only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. One of the guard supervisors had been my commander when I was first recruited into Umbrella's armed forces. He knew perfectly well I wasn't in such a position of authority as I claimed."

"Fortunately," Jill noted, "Carlos created enough distraction that LJ and I were able to seize weapons and the most amazing gunfight broke out."

"Amazing?" asked Alice. "That's a strange word to apply to a gunfight."

"True honey but it was definitely amazing. No one really wanted to shoot with all the experimentation that was going on in there. Who knows what could have been released? So there was a lot of posturing, yelling of threats and whenever a gun actually did go off everyone screamed 'Stop shooting!'."

"We back out of the room and started down the stairs." Jill became grim again. "That's when the shit hit the fan. A big group of Umbrella guards poured up those stairs and they had no compunctions at all about shooting."

"That's when we got separated. I grabbed Angie and went out one door and I guess you and LJ had to go out another. Anyway," Jill looked up at Alice. "That was the last I saw of Carlos and LJ until last night." She looked around. "Speaking of LJ?"

Carlos shook his head. That was all that was needed. The group fell silent for a moment. Everyone had lost family and friends until there was barely enough grief left for anyone to express. But what LJ, Carlos, Alice and Jill had gone through in Raccoon City had left a bond between the foursome that steel was no match for.

"So," Jill forced cheerfulness she obviously didn't feel into her voice. "Where did you two go?"

"After we realized that we were never going to be able to find you and Angie we started heading West and North again. Eventually we crossed the Mississippi River and eventually linked up with Claire."

Jill's eyes flickered over to Claire as Carlos indicated her. A furrow appeared in the bedridden woman's forehead as she struggled to think of why the other woman seemed so familiar to her when she was sure they had never met. Then her attention returned to Carlos as he went on to explain how they had settled with Isaacs and found their way here and how they had dealt with Roger and how THAT had come about. A grin crossed Jill's face and she looked at Kmart.

"I admit it. I never saw Carlos and Alice as parents but I'm glad they are and that they came to rescue their daughter." Once more the grin faded. "I hope that they will be able to help me rescue mine."

"How were you parted?" asked Alice again quietly. Her heart ached at the look on her friend's face.

"We figured that Carlos and LJ had probably gone back in the direction we had come from to begin with but we couldn't follow. Once we got out of the building we had to take refuge right down the street to avoid a mob of zombies being drawn by the presence of so many humans. Eventually we slipped away but the battle was raging through the streets and we had to go south. Every time we tried to turn back we found the way blocked; rubble mostly but occasionally zombies. With the limited ammunition I had it was better to run from them rather than fight them.

"It took several days to get out of Atlanta and then we found ourselves on I-75. We holed up in an abandoned truck stop for a couple of days while I got a vehicle running and armored it as best as I could. Angie monitored the radio and also managed to uplink her father's computer to a satellite connection. From what we could tell Atlanta had been abandoned completely by Umbrella and taken over by the zombies.

"Angie did find some good news for us. There seemed to be places where the infection wasn't spreading. Alaska was one of those places but it was so far away. We discovered though a couple were very close. Several of the barrier islands off the coast of Georgia were nature preserves with no or very little human population. The infection had passed them by. There were small colonies of survivors on those islands and Angie made contact with them. When they found out that she had developed an anit-virus that could keep the infection spreading to them they immediately offered us a place with them. We headed down the highway towards them.

It all seemed as though things were going perfectly. Yes, we had been separated fro Carlos and LJ but I was sure once we reached safety we could start coming up with a way to find them. And, I admit it; my primary concern was for Angie. By then our relationship had reached the point that we didn't think of each other as older and younger friends but as..."

"Mother and daughter," finished Kmart with tears in her eyes.

"Yes sweetie," acknowledged Jill. "Just the same as you and Alice."

"No one blames you for that Jill," reassured Carlos. "Both LJ and I knew what was happening between you two and we both thoroughly approved it."

"Jill I saw that even before I left," Alice told the other woman. "I thought it was wonderful."

"It was. But we had got so excited that we simply forgot nothing is secure nowadays, especially communications and that not everyone out there can be trusted. Just miles short of the ocean we came across a broken down vehicle with two females waving frantically to us for assistance."  
"It was, of course, a trap. A trap by Umbrella. Troops were hidden on either side of the road. Had one of them not moved just a moment too soon I believe they would have succeeded completely and killed me before taking Angie captive. As it was light glinted off a helmet and I leaped back into the vehicle before the first shots were fired and we peeled out of there.  
"

"I stayed ahead as long as I could but Umbrella brought up a helicopter and that was it. The buffeting from the rotors drove me off the road and the crash knocked me out. When I came to they was gone and Angie was gone with them."

"I might have given up on any hope of finding her again but for the sheer luck that they took the wrong laptop. Instead of grabbing Angie's, which was tucked away in a hard case in the trunk with its precious data they took the one that she had been using to satellite communication with the survivors we were attempting to reach."

"Since that day I've been trying to find her. I don't know why they left me alive. I guess they either thought I was dead or not worth killing." Fire flashed in her eyes. "I'll make them regret that. By monitoring Umbrella communications I found she had been taken west. Sometimes I had a vehicle, sometimes I had to walk. I found a few survivors along the way and we made it here. They scattered when Roger's people attacked us."

"Some protector I turned out to be. Couldn t protect the people I was leading and couldn't keep safe the girl who had become my daughter."

Claire broke her silence. "I think we all know how that feels. But I'm sure you did the best you could." Sadness filled her eyes and she reached out to Jill. "Every time I lost someone from our convoy I thought I couldn't stand it anymore. But I went on because I had to do it. And you will too and one day you'll find her."

The two women touched fingers and met each other's eyes. Jill nodded.

"Oh golly," Alice said. "You two haven't met. Jill Valentine this is Claire Redfield."

Jill bolted upright in the bed. "Claire Redfield? No wonder you look so familiar. You're Chris Redfield's sister!"

"Oh my GOD."

(To Be Continued) 


	12. Chapter 12

Tripod, Chapter 12 by patricia51

Jill bolted upright in the bed. "Claire Redfield? No wonder you look so familiar. You're Chris Redfield's sister!"

"Oh my GOD."

The others present simply looked confused. Carlos was the first to speak as the two women simply stared at each other.

"Jill I gather that at some time or another you've met Chris? I never have but Claire has talked about him."

"Chris and I were STARS members together," Jill replied, a dazed look on her face. "Our team was dispatched to an area outside of Raccoon City when another team went missing while investigating reports of disappearances, murders and even cannibalism. Before the mission was over Chris and O had watched each other's back a lot and had a detailed knowledge of what Umbrella was up to with there bio research."

"That's how you knew about the infection and why it was necessary to shoot them in the head to stop them," said Alice.

"Yes," nodded Jill. "When we got back to the city Chris and I tried to expose what was going on but Umbrella was ready with a cover up as always and when the smoke settled we were both suspended and hell for all I know blamed for everything that went on and for all the deaths. The world fell apart before actual charges were brought. In the meantime I had given up but I know Chris had not. He had already left the city for Washington where he was gong to try contacting a couple of friends who worked for the FBI. I never heard of him or from him again."

"The last message I got from him as the break down became complete was that he was trying for the West Coast. He had found out something but he didn't have time to tell me about it. So as we have criss-crossed the countryside I've kept an eye and an ear out for him or any word of him."

"Did you ever find anything out about him?" asked Jill.

"No, not a thing." Claire looked at Jill. "But you were telling us about your daughter."

The former officer nodded. "If it hadn't been for the laptop I think I would have gone crazy. In fact I was so dazed for the first hours after Angie was taken that I nearly became a snack for wandering zombies. I was staggering down the old Interstate, raving like a madwoman and then crying helplessly with the laptop under one arm and, thank God, my pistol in the other. Where I was going I had no idea. I was just going after Angie."

Carlos and Alice both nodded and their fingers touched as they remembered the moment they had found out Kmart was missing.

"I finally came back to my senses, realizing that getting myself killed was not going to help Angie. I headed back to the wreckage of our vehicle, salvaged what I could and then headed west, the direction the abductors had taken."

"Since then I have zig-zagged back and forth across the countryside. Sometimes I was on foot, sometimes I got a vehicle running and drove. I used the programs Dr. Ashford had installed and Angie had tweaked to connect to the Umbrella satellites in orbit and eavesdrop whenever I could. I had to use it sparingly; the opportunity to plug it into the wall and recharge the battery is extremely rare in these post-electric days. Plus I didn't want to trigger an alarm program with my snooping. Umbrella has always been secretive and any hint I was still out there and looking for Angie would cause their security to tighten."

"There hasn't been much. Just bits and pieces. Twice I've found messages mentioning her by name and several more that seemed to refer to her. She had been taken to the North American Umbrella facility so I've been working my way towards its location."

Carlos started to say something but a touch on his arm from Alice and a slight shake of her head stopped him. Jill, her eyes focused on somewhere far from the clinic room didn't notice as she continued.

"Usually I was alone but occasionally I made contact with other groups of survivors. East of the Mississippi, once I was sure they weren't a group of marauders looking for someone to rob; I would give them the location of the safe havens off the coast and direct them there."

"I thought crossing the Mississippi would be the hardest part of the journey. Most of the bridges are gone and the few that remain are so jammed with the rusting hulks of cars and trucks that they're nearly impassable, even on foot. I had left my last vehicle, which was just about out of gas anyway and was carefully picking my way across when I saw the most amazing thing."

"What was it?" asked Kmart excitedly.

"It was an old fashioned river boat just steaming up the channel. The big rear paddle wheel was churning and smoke came from the two stacks. I made my way to the edge of the bridge and just stared, too surprised to wave, shout or do anything. But the lookouts saw me and the boat slowed as it came under the bridge."

"People ran about the decks, manning machine guns mounted there and covering me and the bridge. I was latter to find out that the crew had been forced to fight off several attempts to take the boat from there as well as a zombie attack or two when they were docked so they weren't taking any chances. A burly man appeared on the ship's bridge and told me if I was friendly I was welcome."

Jill laughed. "It took about three seconds for me to tie off a rope on the railing, and slide down it to the boat. The man who had called to me was named Saul and he was the Captain. As the boat started ahead again he invited me to the lounge for lunch and conversation. When I agreed he also offered me a drink. He didn't even seem to mind that I kept my hand on my pistol for the first hours on board."

"A river boat!" exclaimed Kmart. "I remember pictures of them."

"Where in the world did they come from Jill?"

"Captain Saul explained to me that he was the actual captain of the 'River Queen' before the apocalypse. The boat traveled up and down the river providing vacation cruises for interested people as well as a convention site. They generally sailed between Memphis and New Orleans but occasionally went farther up river. When the infection first started to spread Saul, who had once been an officer in the Navy, got very nervous and loaded his family and the families of his crew on the Queen and took off. They had survived the collapse that way and now traveled the river scrounging what they needed as they could find it."

"Just like the land convoys they could only remain docked in one place for a few days before the zombies began to be drawn to them. So they were always on the move too. They did have certain places they stopped at on a regular basis. The ship's engineer had converted the engines to multi-fuel from their original diesel configuration. They had established places along the river where they had constructed still. They would stop run them long enough to fill their fuel tanks with ethanol and then shut them down and go on."

"Also like land convoys a large part of their travels was in search of parts to keep their boat going as well as food and any and all amounts of diesel and gasoline that they could find. Food was less of a problem for them. Not only are there still fish in the river but farther down near the river's mouth where the bayous and tiny islands still exists there are places where the vegetation still grows. There and along the banks on small islands they have planted crops and tend them as they go up and down river."

"By the way Saul told me that their maritime radio still worked and they had picked up intermittent broadcasts from other places around the world. There's a small group of islands in the South Pacific that are free from infection. There's also a group that lives out in the Atlantic on a nuclear aircraft carrier that's built around a portion of the former naval crew that remained aboard when most of the others abandoned her."

"Saul and his crew had managed to avoid infection although they had lost members on shore missions to zombies and had once been attacked by a gang attempting to seize the ship for themselves. The machine guns had come courtesy of the remnants of a National Guard unit that had traded them for passage aboard."

"Speaking of trading, although they didn't ask me for anything I was able to give them part of the batch of infection anti-virus developed by Angie. In return they carried me most of the way up the river and hooked me up with a small convoy that traded with them. I rode with that group as far west as they traveled and then took out on foot. I met a small group of survivors from an overrun wildlife refuge that had heard of this valley. I was able to connect with an old stationary orbit land sat and saw the valley was indeed green. We had climbed the rocks and camped for the night on this side when Roger's people hit us."

Jill looked embarrassed for a moment. "They caught me asleep. I came out with guns ready but they had the drop on the people I had led here and warned me if I didn't give up they'd start killing them. So I did." Fire blazed in the woman's eyes. "But giving up didn't mean giving in and when Roger informed me of the 'boon' I was being offered to become one of his concubines I spit in his face. After that things get a little blurry. I wasn't even sure for a moment that you two were real or a figment of my imagination."

She glanced over at Sarah. "Thank you." Looking back at her friends she explained. "Sarah kept me alive. She smuggled me food and gave me medications and convinced Roger that given enough time I would be amendable to his offer."

It was Sarah's turn to look embarrassed. "Anything for someone who resisted Roger like Jill did." The nurse went on. "Now you need to rest Jill. All day. I'm going to give you something to help with that. Eat and sleep. That's all I want you to do until tomorrow."

"Quickly then," spoke up Alice. "Where is Angie's laptop? We have a computer wizard named Mikey. He has a system that we 'liberated' from Umbrella. Coupled together there's no telling what he might find out."

"I don't know," said Jill. "Everything was taken from me."

"Roger had it stored somewhere I'm sure," put in Sarah even as she gave Jill two small white pills and a cup of water. "He never threw anything away. I'll get some of the people who worked inside the throne building to help you search."

Carlos bent down and kissed Jill on the cheek. "Rest," he told her. "You need to get well. Never fear, we'll do all we can to help you find Angie." Alice nodded her agreement and duplicated Carlos' kiss.

"Sleep now."

Lots of help turned up Angie's laptop in short order. Mikey networked it with his Umbrella console and started searching. He worked all day, pausing only for sandwiches and snacks, all of which he ate without paying attention to what he was putting in his mouth. The others left him alone. He was still muttering and squinting at the monitors when Carlos and Alice scooped up Kmart and went off to bed.

The next morning the family trio arrived at the clinic. To their surprise they found Claire was already there and the two women were talking like old friends. They had no sooner settled in than Mikey bustled in the door.

"I've found out some stuff but not enough to pinpoint where Angie is,' he started. Noticing how Jill's face fell he hastened to continue. "But I'm pretty sure that she still is in North America, probably somewhere on the West Coast. You were right Jill. It was a deliberate Umbrella attempt to snatch Angie. With that idiot Cain having killed her father she was the best hope that umbrella had of recovering some of his research. Chairman Wesker wants her at the Umbrella headquarters in Tokyo but she's not to be taken there until the trip can be confirmed to be completely safe. Since even Umbrella apparently has no aircraft capable of flying that far the movement is on hold. So there's time."

"Can you find her location?" demanded Alice.

"I need more equipment. Sam has an idea about that."

The former Umbrella pilot had come with Mikey, the pair having become friends. He nodded.

"The next stop we were planning, where Chase and I have already stockpiled fuel, is an abandoned US military research installation. No life, no zombies. I chose it not only because it was in a good position for the second leap but because its defensible and I think might contain a stockpile of equipment of all types left there when the facility was emptied. And some high grade computers are likely to be among that equipment."

"Well", Said Claire. "I guess it's time for us to be moving on then."

(To Be Continued)


	13. Chapter 13

Tripod, Chapter 13 by patricia51

"Well", said Claire, "I guess it's time for us to be moving on then."

Everyone agreed. Of course merely making a decision didn't mean that they were able to lift off the next day. Or the day after. Or the day after that. In fact it turned out to be nearly two weeks before the helicopters soared off with the travelers on board.

First and foremost was the need for Jill to recover enough to go with them. The original members of Claire s convoy had decided to stick together and continue their quest for Alaska. They had invited any of the survivors of Roger's tyranny to join them but only a couple, all of whom came from partied that had stumbled into the valley from outside, decided to go with them.

"After all," Sally the Nurse Practicioner pointed out, "This is our home. And now that you have freed us it can be a very good home again. Besides, you couldn't carry all of us even if we wanted to go."

"There are also other good reasons for you to remain here," said Alice thoughtfully. "A viable group of survivors, safe and self supporting, adds to the likelihood that humanity will survive. You will be able to provide a refuge to other groups who have escaped the infection and the zombies. We now know that there are more of those groups than we ever dared hope."

"Plus," added Carlos, "Should our quest to Alaska fail we now have a place we could make our way back to for safety."

"You will always be welcome here," said Sally as she hugged the senior members of the convoy.

Sam, with the help of Mikey and Chase, had been busy ferrying the supplies and vehicles to the next stop. By agreement they had left a supply of gasoline stored with the valley settlers along with a selection of other hard-to-come-by items they had found at the Umbrella base that the ranchers and farmers badly needed. Claire even parted with two cans of coffee.

Finally the morning came for the travelers to leave. Goodbyes were exchanged and promises were made to try to arrange someway of staying in touch. Then the helos were off.

Kmart snuggled happily between her parents, her eyes watching the ground below, the ground where she had come close to losing them. But she had known that they would come for her. They would always come for her, although she firmly resolved that she would never let inattention get her into such a predicament as she had been in. She shivered with the thought. Death was one thing but the fate that Roger had nearly subjected her to was terrifying. She shivered and an arm crept around her from both sides, holding her tightly. She relaxed again in the feeling of warmth and love that surrounded her. She hoped that her parents would be able to help their old friend Jill find her daughter.

After hours of flight the helicopter slowed. Kmart craned her neck, nearly reduced to peeking as her parents checked their weapons. The teen reminded herself that she had yet to bring up the subject of being armed herself rather than depending on being lucky enough to have a weapon nearby when she needed one.

In the meantime the place they were landing at didn't look much like a military installation to her. A fence topped with concertina wire surrounded a small building. A pair of rusting vehicles sat outside of the chained gate. She reminded herself that in some ways the Umbrella facility looked kind of like this. The rest must be underground. There was a stack of fuel drums, the two cargo containers and some tarpaulin covered shapes that must be their vehicles neatly arranged in one corner.

Dust scattered under the rotors as they touched down. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Claire's helicopter landing a safe distance away. The survivors hopped down and ducked under the rotors until they stopped spinning. Chase led a group to the fuel depot, bringing drums back to immediately fill the helos' tanks up in case something happened that required an immediate take-off.

Nothing seemed to happen. Everyone scanned the surroundings. Nothing. No people, no zombies. Mikey and Sam took the lead, heading to the small building while Chase and a couple others kept watch. After a bit Mikey stuck his head out the door and waved. Kmart followed her parents into the building, through a heavy steel door and around a corner to a featureless door that opened to reveal an elevator cage. Off to one side was a room with what her Dad explained was one-way glass so that guards could observe who was coming in the building.

"Same set-up as they used to use for access to the launch control stations of ICBM sites," commented Carlos.

"This may have been one that was expanded after the missile silos were closed," agreed Mikey.

Searching the underground lab took a lot less time that the similar operation had taken at the Umbrella facility. Mikey did find a computer system that he was able to log into and uplink to a US Government satellite. He didn't have time to conduct much of a search but began to set up the parameters he would follow up with beginning tomorrow. The rest of the time before supper he spent going through files with an increasingly baffled look on his face.

Everything seemed to be neatly stacked and arranged. If not for the fine film of dust covering everything someone could think that the lab had closed for the day and that first thing in the morning the personnel would walk in and pick up where they had left off.

"What's strange is that there's no hint of what they were up to here. No paper files, no scribbled notebooks, no status reports," said Alice when the groups met to eat that evening.

"And nothing on the computers. Oh, plenty of programs but all generic, even the powerful processing ones. I have no idea what they were processing. All the data files are wiped clean and over written," reported Mikey

"Whatever they were doing they cleaned the place out when they left. And it wasn't in a hurry. Everything arranged. Even the dishes in the kitchen are clean and the cupboards are empty. Beds are neatly made and the closets are bare," said Claire.

"Interestingly the one thing I found that was left intact was the arms locker. A lot of good stuff there. Someone closed the security door but either forgot to lock it or deliberately left it that way. There's enough stuff there to fight a small war," Carlos reported.

"Which hopefully will not take place," replied Claire. "Still, we'll certainly want to look through that locker. Even if Alaska is all that we hope it is you never know when we'll be forced to defend ourselves against a threat."

"That's just the way the world is," sighed Chase. "But then if you think about it, it always was."

On that note the group adjourned and went off to the quarters they had chosen for the night.

In the double room that Kmart had found for them Alice and Carlos sat their daughter down. She wondered if the long awaited grounding and whatever was going to take place. Her fears eased when Alice spoke.

"Kmart your Dad has something for you."

Carlos produced a black belt of some synthetic material. Attached to it was something made of the Material that she realized was a holster. Her eyes widened in excitement.

"For me?"

Carlos nodded. "I know you've been hinting about this. Heck, you've been outright asking. But I finally found something today I think you can handle. He passed her the belt and holster and then opened a hard-shell gun case lying on a small table. He opened it and produced a small black automatic.

"This is a Walther PK380. It's chambered for what is sometimes called 9 millimeter short. Here in the US it's .380 caliber. It doesn't have the stopping power of heavier cartridges but it should work just fine on zombies. It's light and designed to be easy to use in general and to pull back the slide to chamber a round specifically."

"Beginning tomorrow we'll start practicing with it. As you get older we'll move on to something more powerful but for right now it's perfect for you."

Kmart threw her arms around her Father. The pair sat down and Carlos demonstrated the weapon's features while the teen listened with rapt attention.

Alice smiled but her smile was tinged with sadness. What a world, she thought. At Kmart s age she should be happy with being asked out by the cutest boy in school. She should be ecstatic about a beautiful new dress or getting her driver's license, not getting her first pistol. A pistol that she probably would have to use soon to protect her life. She redoubled her determination to take care of her new found daughter and to bring down the corporation that had turned the world into the nightmare she had to grow up in.

Even before the sun was up the next morning Mikey was hard at work. He had linked the Umbrella computer they had taken from the Las Vegas ambush to the government one and was running through thousands of bits of information, searching for any mention of Angela Ashford. He found the search frustrating, blocked at nearly every point and the security systems involved nearly impossible to penetrate. So he was loving every minute of it.

At the same time he set up a link that allowed for a real time camera survey of Earth and narrowed it to their target area of Alaska. His excited yells brought everyone running, except Kmart who was up on the surface practicing shooting under the watchful eyes of her Father.

"What is it Mikey?" asked Claire. Jill didn't speak but a look of hope had risen in her eyes.

"First, look at this. It's central Alaska. Definitely green, not barren. And if you narrow the focus," he delicately adjusted a control," you get this. Plowed fields, grazing pastures, untouched buildings and best of all," he sharpened the image even closer.

"People!" exclaimed Alice jubilantly.

"Yes, people. NOT zombies. No sign of them in fact."

"And well with range," Sam added excitedly.

The computer expert turned his attention to Jill. "I don't have a great deal on Angie but I do have a few bits and pieces on her and her abductors. They definitely came west after they took her. And they only stopped at the Umbrella facility for a few hours and then went on. I've found recent mentions of her so she's still alive."

"Thank God," breathed Jill. Claire wrapped an arm around her and hugged.

"Beyond that I don't know for sure. I have a report from an Umbrella facility located in Los Angeles about her but there's also a communiqu from Seattle that mentions her. So she could be in either place. Or neither but I would bet on either one. I'll keep working, I promise."

"Thank you."

"By the way, Claire?" When the convoy leader shot him an inquiring look Mikey went on. "The same data stream I intercepted from LA about Angie also contained a reference to a Chris R."

"What did it say?"

Mikey grinned. "That he and it did say 'he' was being a monumental pain in the ass to keep under control."

"That sounds like my brother." Jill nodded in agreement.

"Let me keep working today. We can leave tomorrow for Alaska," Mikey proposed.

"I don't know," said Claire, conscious of Jill's pleading look and wanting more on her brother herself but unwilling to commit the other survivors.

"It might be a good thing Claire," interjected Sam. "We could use a few hours to pull maintenance on the choppers."

"What do you think Alice?"

"I don't think one day more would hurt," Alice said thoughtfully.

When she looked back at that day and her opinion the former Security Head would admit that seldom had she been so wrong.

(To be continued)

(Yikes! Sorry for the delay but my computer picked up a very nasty infection and I just got it back. Fortunately I didn't lose anything which would have made me cry since I had finished this chapter and was just letting it sit for a day before looking over it again.)


	14. Chapter 14

Tripod, Chapter 14 by patricia51

"I don't think one day more would hurt," Alice said thoughtfully.

When she looked back at that day and her opinion the former Security Head would admit that seldom had she been so wrong. But then hindsight always is twenty-twenty.

Everyone pitched in to help with the chopper maintenance and to work out exactly what should go with them in the first load to be carried to what they hoped would be their new home. It was decided that the containers would remain here for now but that the cargo helo would sling one vehicle and that one would be Claire's. Kmart was disappointed at first, wanting "their" truck to come along but accepting the reasoning that the speedy but powerful little vehicle would be the perfect scout.

In between times the survivors rested, ate and continued to explore the abandoned base/lab. Heads were scratched often as no one could come up with exactly what the purpose of the place was. The large amount of lab equipment remaining could be used for just about any branch of science and the search for any documents or computer files continued to be fruitless.

"I suppose we may never know just what they were doing here," remarked Claire.

"Or where they went and why," added Alice.

Mikey, with Jill by his side, continued his efforts to intercept any Umbrella communications or messages that mentioned Angie. He grew even more intent, becoming completely absorbed in his search. Scraps of information began to make a pattern to him and he pressed on, eager to give the woman with him the location of her daughter.

Even had he not been wrapped up in his search it was unlikely that Mikey would have spotted the alarm he tripped as he worked deeper into Umbrella's computer network. But never-the-less an alarm was sounded and a computer tech in Japan responded to it. She initiated a trace, following the inquiry back to its source. Assembling what she could rapidly she called for a supervisor and informed him of what she had found.

After a period of research that supervisor walked briskly down hallways until he reached the office of the Chairman of Umbrella. He was nervous. More than once a summons to that office had resulted in an underling being taken by security and ejected from the complex into the world above ground. That was an almost certain death sentence of course. At the same time though the supervisor felt this would be a demonstration that his department was operating efficiently and properly. There had been rumors sweeping through the complex that because of the tightening food and supplies shortages that the Chairman was considering downsizing some aspects of the company. And downsizing right now meant more than losing a job.

Shortly he was in front of Chairman Wesker, who merely glanced at him.

"Yes?"

"Chairman Wesker we detected a computer hacker attempting to break into our files. The technician who discovered the intrusion summoned me. We traced the intrusion to a point in North America. A major concern is that that point of origin was not in our facility there but the electronic signature reveals the base computer used is an Umbrella machine and was assigned to that facility. Also the hacker seems to be attempting to track the whereabouts of Angela Ashford."

A raised eyebrow and a motion to continue encouraged the supervisor.

"The party most likely to be interested in Angela Ashford's location would be a Jill Valentine. She's a former Raccoon City STARS Officer who unilaterally assumed guardianship over Angela after the latter's father's death. It was thought she had been killed in the operation that returned Angela to Umbrella control. However I checked the reports filed after that operation and her body was not examined by medical personnel. It was apparently assumed by a cursory look that she could not have survived the crash of the vehicle."

Wesker's lips tightened. The supervisor gave silent thanks that he was not the one who had failed to confirm something important and Wesker was known for considering minor details as important.

"Sir, perhaps the most important aspect of this intrusion is that Jill Valentine is a known associate of Alice Abernathy, on whom my department has a notice that any lead at all to her location is to be brought immediately to your attention."

Cold eyes measured the supervisor, nearly making him quake. But Chairman Wesker hated weaklings. "Do you know why?" the board chairman asked.

"No sir. It's none of my business. If I need to know to do my job then I'll be told."

"That was the correct answer. Do you have a precise location on where the intruder is physically located?"

"Yes sir I do."

"Wait a moment." Wesker tapped a button on his desk. Moments latter a hologram image lit up, showing a man in a well cut suit sitting in a chair.

"Yes Chairman Wesker?"

"I have a mission for you. Utmost importance. You must commit all available resources to ensure its successful completion."

"Yes sir."

Wesker turned back to the computer supervisor. "Give him the location. Then leave." Once that was done Wesker returned his attention to the sole remaining department head in North America.

"This is the best lead we have had on Project Alice since that idiot Isaacs went off the air. Speaking of that I assume you have no new information on that."

"No sir. We managed a brief connection to the computer center at that facility but could not contact the AI there. Video we managed to get showed the site is over run by zombies."

Wesker waved his hand in dismissal. "Isaacs was a fool. A useful fool but a fool never-the-less. That's not important. I need you to launch an immediate assault on that area. Maximum effort. We MUST retrieve Project Alice or we can look forward to spending the next few decades underground."

"I understand sir."

"By the way, any success in getting Angela Ashford here?"

"No sir. We still can't come up with plan I feel confident in. No remaining airplane can cover that distance and I am exceedingly reluctant to entrust her to one of the few ships still afloat. Not until I can be certain we will be in control. I don't trust mercenaries."

"Agreed. But when, and I say when not if, you retrieve Project Alice we'll find a way to transport both her and Ashford here if we have to use every guard we have to ensure a safe voyage."

"Yes sir. I've summoned my security commander, intelligence officer and transportation coordinator. We will launch as soon as possible."

"Sooner."

Back at the old military reservation/lab Carlos was laughing. "Sweetheart if you clean that pistol any more you're going to wear it completely out. I promise you that it's as clean as a whistle."

Kmart smiled at her father. "I know but it means so much. You and Mom trust me to carry a weapon and then we get to spend hours learning how to break it down and then more hours on target practice."

"Well I'm just glad that we found an entire case of ammo for you. I think you've already fired half of it." Deep in his heart the big former Umbrella soldier prayed that before long they would be somewhere his daughter would never have to fire her new weapon at anything but a paper target. "Let's police up the brass and go see what your Mother is doing."

"I'm not doing much of anything," Alice smiled at the pair as she leisurely strolled up to them. "The helos are all packed. Mikey is shutting down the computer hookup and packing up the Umbrella console to take along. It will be dark in a couple of hours. It looks like we'll all go to bed early tonight and be ready to take off at first light."

"Alaska here we come!" cried Kmart in excitement. "Will we have a real home there? A house I mean."

"With central heat and a white picket fence and a lawn. Maybe we'll find a dog." Alice smiled at her daughter.

"A dog? That would be great." The teen turned to see how her Father was reacting.

Carlos was not looking at them. He was shading his eyes and peering at the horizon with a look of concern on his face.

"What is it honey?" Alice asked as she turned to face the same direction." Her sharper than normal eyesight gave her the answer immediately.

"Helicopters!"

Carlos was off and running for the entrance to the underground lab. Although she didn't know just what he was up to Alice was sure it was a response that would help protect them all. She raced for the spot where she had left her pistols while loading the cargo helo. Pounding footsteps beside her reassured her without having to look that her daughter was right by her side.

Sam dived into the control seat of his chopper, flicked on several switches and listened. Paling, he stuck his head out the door and yelled.

"Umbrella strike force!"

Claire snatched up an assault rifle and yelled directions, including one for Sam to try to get his helo off the ground and away from the upcoming fight. She glanced longingly at the cargo ship with its array of weapons peeking out from under the nose and shook her head. The whine of the turbine from Sam's ship and the slow turn of the rotors showed the ex-Umbrella pilot was struggling to get his ship going and away.

Chase and the other adults took up defensive positions even as Jill and Mikey appeared and shooed the children to cover. Claire wavered. On one hand the children would be safer down below but then again they could be trapped there. Exploration of the complex below had not shown any other exit.

Then it was too late to make decisions. Mikey herded the children inside. Jill sprinted to take cover beside Claire. Sam gained just enough altitude to transition to level flight and pulled away, almost scraping the ground as barely clearing the fence as he did. Gunfire erupted from the leading Umbrella ship, obviously aimed at preventing what the attacking forces thought might be an escape attempt. And then Carlos reappeared.

In each hand the big man balanced a long slender tube with a firing grip assembly built on to one end. Carefully he set down the one his left hand had been holding and swung the other one to his shoulder. Without seeming to rush he squinted through an optical sight and pressed a button on the side of the housing. He held his position for what was only seconds, although it seemed so much longer, then his finger squeezed the trigger it was curled around. There was a roar and a missile sprang from the tube.

Carlos dropped the expended tube and reached for the other one, ignoring the missile he had fired. That missile curved towards the lead chopper, which stopped firing at Sam and made a frantic attempt to evade. As Carlos settled the second launcher on his shoulder the heat seeking missile reached its target and pieces of the shattered and burning Umbrella helo rained down on the barren landscape.

The other two attacking choppers veered off. Carlos continued to track the nearer one. Alice was almost ready to call the day a victory when movement caught her eye. A line of faceless men in the black uniforms of Umbrella came up from a dry creek bed that had allowed them to get right up to the fence without being seen.

Alice leaped to her feet, her pistols already in hand. Her barrage of gunfire brought the other survivors' attention to the ground attack. Their fire reinforced hers and the black suited figures began to fall. But their weapons included fully automatic rifles as well as a pair of light machine guns and the convoy members, Alice included, were forced to cover.

Peeking from behind the container that she and her mother had ducked behind Kmart realized that her father had either not noticed the attackers or was ignoring them in his single-minded quest to bring down a second helo. Her vision zeroed in on one Umbrella soldier who had turned his attention to Carlos.

Alice had finished reloading when to her terror she realized that Kmart had leaped from cover. The teen's pistol, locked in the two handed grip they had taught her, was spitting empty cases as she fired on one of the attackers who obviously was targeting her father. Alice herself bolted from shelter after her daughter, catching sight of one of the machine guns turning towards the only two figures out in the open.

Even with her super human speed and agility only one thought filled Alice's mind. Could she reach the two most important people in her life in time?

(To be continued)


	15. Chapter 15

Tripod, Chapter 15 by patricia51

(My thanks to VeronicaD13 for reminding me that in a crunch Alice has mental powers and would darn well use them.)

Alice had finished reloading when to her terror she realized that Kmart had leaped from cover. The teen's pistol, locked in the two handed grip they had taught her, was spitting empty cases as she fired on one of the attackers who obviously was targeting her father. Alice herself bolted from shelter after her daughter, catching sight of one of the machine guns turning towards the only two figures out in the open.

Even with her super human speed and agility only one thought filled Alice's mind. Could she reach the two most important people in her life in time?

Everything seemed to move in slow motion, everything except for her as she erupted from behind cover. Images, one after another, burned themselves into her mind as though they were drawn from some incredible slideshow even as they somehow seemed to freeze her into immobility...

Carlos, his finger slowly tightening and the missile motor igniting...

Kmart, the empty magazine falling from her pistol as her left hand slapped a full replacement in and her right thumb pushed the slide release...

The man targeting Carlos staggering as Kmart's bullets slapped against his armor vest and then took him at the base of his throat under his helmet...

The launcher falling from her beloved's hands as the Stinger missile streaked towards the second chopper...

Her daughter's eyes opening wide as she saw the machine gun bullets kicking up dust as they walked towards her and her father...

Carlos seeing the danger, turning towards his daughter in what Alice knew beyond a shadow of a doubt would be a futile attempt to cover her body with his own...

The one-in-five green tracers arching towards the pair...

And then suddenly those tracers were rebounding in all directions through the air. All directions except towards Kmart, and Carlos, who had just tackled their daughter. As with the flamethrower, a curved invisible shield had sprung up to protect the pair.

The machine gunner was nothing if not persistent. After a momentary pause he resumed firing at the sprawled out couple. However his concentration proved his undoing as Jill popped up from her position beside Claire and demonstrated why she had been chosen for Raccoon City Police Department's elite STARS team. Her first shot starred the Plexiglas shield of the gunner's helmet. The second hit the same place and cracked it wide open. The third zipped right through the opening and punched its way out of the back of the helmet.

That was the last shot. Once upon a time the individual members of the convoy had been ordinary men and women. The Umbrella employees had been trained security guards. But over the last years the ordinary men and women had survived the most brutal Darwinian selection process ever to appear on Earth, a process that 99.9 percent of humanity had failed. At the same time the Umbrella men had been hiding underground and getting fat and lazy. Once upon a time the soldiers would have been the victors. Now they were barely a challenge for Claire Redfield's convoy. The Umbrella unmoving figures littered the landscape and not a single survivor had been touched.

Alice's eyes covered the scene, and then rose towards the horizon and the last attacking helicopter, now retreating at full speed. Her eyes narrowed and her mind reached out. Seconds later only an expanding ball of fire colored the horizon.

Alice stood still for a moment. Then her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed. But before she could do more than start to fall hands caught her and Carlos and Kmart carried her into the shade. They covered her, made her comfortable and her daughter remained with her, holding her hand while Carlos hurried to join the other convoy leaders.

"What in the world just happened?" asked Claire to the world at large. "How did Umbrella find us? WHY did they find us and why did they come after us with a force I never thought they would still have in North America?"

"As for the latter, let's see what Sam knows about that," Chase nodded to where their helicopter was investigating the crash sites of the attackers. "As for the rest, maybe they were looking for Alice?"

"How would they know she's here?" wondered Carlos.

"No telling," said Jill. 'They have their ways."

"No, they weren't after Alice. Or rather they might have been but that's not what tripped them to our location." Mikey joined the group.

"Oh?" Claire raised an eyebrow. "And you know this how?" she asked her old friend.

Mikey looked distinctly embarrassed. "Because I think I gave our location away."

"How?"

"While I was searching through Umbrella's files," he admitted. "I think I may have tripped an intruder detection program. I thought I had but when nothing happened I figured it either wasn't monitored or I had successfully avoided it. I don't think that now. And the computer I'm using to link into Umbrella's network is one of theirs after all."

The conversation was broken as everyone automatically shielded themselves from the dust created by Sam's landing. They paused until the pilot joined them and then Claire briefed him.

"I wouldn't be surprised to find Umbrella computers have a locater system built in," he said thoughtfully. "I know there is one in the helicopters. Or rather," he hastily added, "there was. I disabled them long ago." He turned to Mikey. "I'm sorry. I just never thought of the computer, even when I was fixing the helicopters and even though I know how paranoid Umbrella is."

"None of the rest of us thought anything of it and I'm supposed to think about things like that, especially when it comes to computers," reassured Mikey. He thought for a moment.

"Okay, this is what I think. I'm the one who got caught snooping. A check of what my search engine was looking for would have revealed Angie was my primary focus. It wouldn't take too much of a leap to go from Angie to Jill and from Jill to Alice."

"What do we do now?"

"We get out of here," Claire declared firmly.

"But not directly to Alaska," suggested Sam. "We shift everything to the west. Not too far, a hundred, hundred and fifty miles and hide it as best we can." He stopped. "I even think..." he trailed off.

"What?"

"That we abandon the helicopters and drive. Umbrella will be looking full force for us. I imagine they can track us from orbit if they want to do it bad enough and right now I bet they do."

"Another thought," put in Carlos. "I'm not sure what kind of reaction we would get from the people in Alaska. It's pretty well established among the survivors world wide from what we've heard that Umbrella is responsible for what happened. Arriving on two of their helicopters might not prove to be the way to introduce ourselves."

"Good points. But I hate to think of losing them permanently, not to mention the supplies we'll have to abandon along with them."

"What about a compromise?" Chase unfolded a map he had retrieved from the cargo helicopter. "We move everything as far as here." His finger stabbed at a point. "That's over the last mountains. From there we can drive to the portion of the uninfected zone that we know is inhabited."

Claire nodded. "We concealed the choppers, the containers and everything else. When we can we come back for them." She smiled. "Let's get going. Not you Carlos. You need to see about Alice." The powerfully built man nodded and ran to where Kmart was supporting her mother.

Once more, in the now zombie haunted halls and rooms of the former Umbrella base a sensor detected the unleashing of Alice's mind powers. Once more it attempted to communicate its findings. But the way to the AI was still closed and the communication links were still down. Obedient to its programming it recycled and tried again. After a third failure it shut down once more. But not before a basically only semi-conscious Alice felt the tug of something and sent the power of her mind after it. The sensor flared briefly and fell silent forever.

It was hours later that Alice's eyes fluttered open. It was nearly dark. Someone was with her in, well, wherever they were. It took only a moment to recognize the form beside her in the dim light. She smiled and touched the fingers resting just above her wrist.

"Our daughter told me that she gave me this bracelet for luck. I guess she was right wasn't she? Where are we?"

"We're in Alaska. Before you ask, Kmart is asleep. She didn't leave your side until just about an hour ago. I finally convinced her to go to bed." Carlos leaned over her kissed her. A soft sweet kiss that was not passionate, not demanding but rather full of love and understanding and giving. She twined her arms around his neck and hugged him close.

"So we're here?"

"Well at the point that we agreed on. The vehicles, the container and the supplies have all been ferried here. The helicopters have been carefully camouflaged and the cargo containers too. We will leave in the convoy vehicles before dawn."

By dawn the trio was back into the cab of their truck and headed north. This time Alice was driving and Carlos riding shotgun while once again their now daughter's head was snuggled against his shoulder. The two adults exchanged smiles.

In two days the convoy had reached the inhabited area. The first meetings between them and the inhabitants was warty on both sides. The residents had been burned more than once by marauders coming in the guise of survivors. But slowly the tension eased and the new-comers were accepted. Careful parties returned to the hidden site to retrieve the supplies stored there over the next two weeks, parties that were made up of both the convoy members and the now welcoming locals.

There was plenty of room for all, and plenty for that all to do to insure that civilization kept its tenuous grip on this unspoiled part of the earth. The settlement they had found was one of a number scattered about the former state. Each one was generally independent, although sharing information gleaned about the rest of the world, any sign of the infection reaching towards them as well as weather, crops, supplies and everything else.

The only really state wide authority they learned was a small remnant of the Alaska National Guard. The Guard did not furnish law-enforcement, rather concentrating only on monitoring the borders of the uninfected area and fighting the occasional band of marauders who invaded with mayhem and looting on their minds. There was still a Governor with a small staff but the staff concerned itself only with facilitating the transmission of information between the settlements and acting as a central records depository.

It was in the latter capacity that the now settled survivors used that office one sunny afternoon to record the marriage of Carlos Olivera and Alice Abernathy as well as their formal adoption of Kmart, who had grudgingly admitted her real name upon a promise that only in those records would she be known as Dahlia Olivera-Abernathy. Two weeks after the happiest day she could remember Kmart had tears in her eyes again.

Jill had recovered from her injuries. Mikey, having found and cleared out the tracking programs and transponder unit from the liberated Umbrella computer, had been able to finally confirm that Angie Ashford was being held at a hidden Umbrella facility in Los Angeles. It also turned out that there were other prisoners there one of whom he was pretty sure was Chris Redfield. So Jill and Claire were leaving, along with Sam who was going to fly them as close as he could to their target area.

Alice and Carlos had been the first to declare their willingness to go with the two women. Claire and Jill had firmly refused.

"You two, you three, have had your adventure. At least for now. Now you need to spend some time being a family," said Jill.

"Besides, no putting all our eggs in one basket and all that," added Claire. "We'll consider you back-up. We promise to yell if we need help."

"We might not need it you know," Jill said thoughtfully. "Umbrella continues to fall more and more into disarray. The iron fist of Wesker still exists but his reach is growing shorter. More facilities are being overrun or abandoned for lack of supplies. And Mikey found bits of research indicating that the infection is no longer airborne. From now on it looks as though the only way to catch it is from a present zombie."

"Be careful," said Carlos gruffly as he hugged both of them the morning of their departure.

"I'll be thinking of you," promised Alice. "If you need us we'll come running."

Kmart could not say anything but wrapped Claire up in her arms and squeezed her fiercely, tears pouring down her cheeks.

"It'll be alright," Claire whispered as she stroked the teen's hair. Then the two climbed into the helicopter and lifted off.

Kmart watched until the helo had disappeared. Then she turned around. She took her Mother's offered hand with her right hand and her Father's with her right. The trio walked home. To their home, where a puppy ran to greet the family and where they closed the door to shut out the outside world for now.

(The End)

(For now)

(I thought Alice, Carlos and Kmart deserved a little together time so it's time to end this. I will come back to Jill and Alice in a sequel which I'm planning on titling "The Searchers" once I know what's going to happen.)


End file.
